


Leave the Demons be

by blue87



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's, Treasure Planet (2002), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:00:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 44,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27636491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue87/pseuds/blue87
Summary: This is the second story, first being "don't hold this against us" but i can't get it to link it to the first book, so sorry!! (iT's TwiCe aS lOnG :,)honestly we just kind of went for it for this book, we really enjoyed writing it! we hope you enjoy reading it too!!bro we got more cheesy romance this time around cause it was fun to write and WhY nOt. (daRIIIIMMMMM)We want to write mini adventure stories after this so if you have any ideas pleeeaasseee comment we would love to hear them!!I WROTE THIS WITH MAH FRIEND spideyfreakradio SHE'S A REALLY GOOD WRITE GO READ HER STUFFS :)you're amazing, we love you, have a great day, EnjOy!
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	Leave the Demons be

Leave the Demons be 

THE FREAKING SEQUEL MY DUDES 

Ellie rested her head on her desk, she hated school. She was falling behind in a few of her classes despite her drastic efforts to get her work done and study. She felt like she was giving so much effort compared to some of her teachers, she sighed. She was in Animal science, a class she was really excited for. She glanced over at the now empty seat of where Daria used to sit. It had been 4 months since they had trapped William in the code and Daria had chosen to stay in Treasure planet with Jim. She missed her friends so much. School wasn’t the same without her. 

She realized she had zoned out when the teacher called on her to answer a question, “uh” she anxiously looked at the question, scanning her memory to find something to say, “oh FFA stands for Future Farmers of America.” she quickly spoke. “yes good job” her teacher replied. Ellie took a deep breath trying to bring her heart rate back down. She felt her backpack buzz, looking down she saw her phone’s screen light up, the same Bonnie wallpaper staring back at her with the text message notification flashing on the screen. 

She put it at the top of the folders in her backpack and looked at it. She almost screamed when she saw who it was from, “I haven’t either.” It was from Daria. Ellie could feel the color leave her face. “Ellie will you please put that away? I would hate for you to miss this.” Ellie quickly looked up, “Yeah sorry.” she stared in front of her trying to comprehend what had just happened. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

She darted out of class eager to get to lunch as she plopped down at the table she usually sat at. She threw her backpack in the chair next to her as she pulled out her phone and frantically started texting. 

“Daria! You can text??” she stared as 3 dots appeared in the bottom left corner, “Yeah I can! Sorry it took me so long to respond, we just found it... left it here when we went to fnaf last and had to track Silver down again haha” Ellie smiled, she was so excited. “Nah its good! How's life there?” Ellie waited. “Super awesome! I’ve been living with Jim and his mom for awhile and its been so fun! I’m learning so much and I’m going to go on a little voyage with Jim in a few days! There’s this cool new place he wants to see!” Ellie was really glad that Daria and Jim were still a thing, they were cute together. “Thats really awesome Dar! Glad you love it there.” 

Ellie looked around; everyone was hanging out with their friends. Samantha and Eidith were both gone today, she started eating lunch with them after Daria left. They were both really awesome, but she preferred eating with Daria as there was more to talk about most days. She looked at the time. 20 minutes left of lunch. She glanced over at her backpack. She didn’t have any work to do in orchestra... she picked up her stuff and headed for her car while calling her mom, “Hey mom, I don’t have anything to do in orchestra can I come home?” Her mom responded, “Uh yeah that should be fine, just get your homework done.” “k thanks, love you, bye!” She hung up and unlocked her car, climbing into the driver's seat throwing her backpack and phone in the back. 

In 10 minutes, she was pulling into her driveway and climbing the steps to her home. After fumbling with the lock, she threw open the door, stepped in and closed it behind her, sighing and letting her backpack fall to the floor. She put her violin on the floor, “should probably practice....” She mumbled to herself. That’s when she remembered her ukulele. Ever since Jeremy had started to teach her the chorus to It’s been so long, she had started playing the uke. Seeing as that sounded more appealing at that moment, she darted down the stairs to grab the instrument and her music. She flung open the door and started to run in, she stopped very abruptly, tripping on the carpet and falling with a scream. 

She turned over very quickly and put a hand on her head as she laughed, “Jeez guys you really couldn’t turn into ghosts and look like humans for 5 minutes? What are you doing here? How did you-” Ellie stared very confused as she sat there, animatronics towering over her until Bonnie walked forward, “Sorry, didn’t think you’d be home until later.” he pulled her up off the floor. “Oh yeah well I kinda ditched... had no work so ya know.” She looked back over at them, “Can’t decide whether I should be totally ecstatic to see you guys again or worried that you’re here, what's wrong” Charlie let magic out of her hands as it transformed them all into ghost like versions of themselves, slowly becoming more realistic, “Well, we took care of Glitchtrap and no one’s seen him since it’s just, Vanny. She’s taken it upon herself to basically replace him.” Ellie put her hand up to her forehead, “Ugh dang it! I totally forgot to do that! Ugh! I’m so sorry.” Charlie grabbed onto her shoulders, “no no it’s totally fine we just kinda were wondering if you could just add her really quick.” Ellie pulled out her laptop and opened the hacked code that she had fixed a few months ago. “It’s possible yes but- what the” Gabriel looked over at the computer, “what?” Ellie scrolled a little farther up, “uhm she’s not...in the code... like it mentions her a few weeks ago but she’s gone, it won’t let me use that variable.” They all looked over at the code as Ellie tried again- 

Syntax err Var ‘vanny’ not found 

Charlie sat back, “oh no, this is what happened with William.” Fritz walked forward, “did she leave the game?” “I hope not.” Susie replied. “Well, unfortunately, I think so.” Jeremy walked in front of the computer, “Great so we just find where she went and trap her again?” Ellie shrugged, “hard to say, using William’s same strategy would be a really dumb move frankly and they aren’t dumb when it comes to getting away with serious crimes.” Charlie looked up, “so we basically have to do this all over again? Great" “If I can track where she is then maybe I can just program her out of the code but that’s highly unlikely- yeah it didn’t work” They sat there for a second until Charlie spoke up, “let’s get going before she does something drastic. Ellie, we understand if you don’t want to come but if you do then we certainly wouldn’t mind.” Ellie smiled, “what else would I do? Homework?” they smiled as Ellie booted up Undertale, “shall we?” Ellie half grinned. Fritz stepped forward, “WE SHALL!!” Charlie smiled, “let's go recruit!” 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

“SAAAAAAAAAAAAANS!!” Papyrus yelled from the kitchen. “What’s up bro,” Sans called from the couch, knowing full ‘what was up,’ grinning as his brother stomped into the living room. 

“WHY,” the tall skeleton started, crossing his arms as he stood firmly in front of the TV. “DO OUR ONIONS HAVE STICKY NOTES WITH ANGRY FACES ON THEM?!” Sans grinned even wider. “You cry every time you cut onions. I didn’t want you to get emotionally attached this time,” he said, winking. 

Papyrus groaned, putting a hand over his eyes, “THAT’S NOT-UGH, NEVERMIND,” he muttered, turning to head back to the kitchen. “You’re smiling!” Sans called after him. “AM NOT!” He shouted hotly. 

Sans chuckled, turning back to the TV which was showcasing another one of Mettaton’s shows. He wasn’t really paying attention, but it was more interesting than sentry duty. Besides, Frisk wasn’t due to leave the ruins for another four hours, so he had some time to kill. 

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK 

Sans turned his head to the front door. “SANS, COULD YOU GET THAT?” Papyrus called. Sans huffed. “Sure thing, bro.” He stood up, kicking his feet deeper into his slippers as he shuffled to the door. The knocking started again as he unlocked the knob. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m comin’, I’m comin’,” he mumbled, pulling open the door. Bitter snow and wind blew in and the skeleton froze, but not from the cold. 

“Ellie?” He asked, eyes narrowing, trying to make sure what he was seeing was real. “Hey,” she said, voice wavering. Sans glanced behind her to see four mascoted animatronics and a striped puppet standing (or in Charlie’s case, hovering) in the snow. 

“H-how did you...” Sans stammered, still shocked. “We can explain, but can we come inside? It’s cold,” Ellie said, shivering. “Yeah, sorry, come in,” the skeleton said sheepishly, pulling the door open completely as his friends stepped in, snow shaking off their shoulders as they entered the warmth of the house. 

“Hey, Pap! We’ve got company!” Sans called, shutting the door. “REALLY?!” Papyrus shouted excitedly, the sound of a pan falling to the floor echoing loudly as he hurried to the living room. “OH!” He exclaimed, putting his hands to his face as he bounced in joy. “NEW FRIENDS! THIS IS WONDERFUL, I CAN BE POPULAR NOW, WE CAN DO SO MANY FUN THINGS TOGETHER, WOWIE!” 

Papyrus walked over to them, cocking his head as he looked at their shivering forms. “GOODNESS ME, YOU ALL NEED HOT CHOCOLATE! BE RIGHT BACK!” He said joyfully, skipping back to the kitchen. 

Sans invited his guests to the couch and pulled up a chair for himself. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. 

“How?” He asked, looking intently at Ellie. She swallowed, showing the messenger bag on her shoulder as she pulled a laptop out of it. “Same way as last time.” 

“I thought Afton’s glitch was what let you do that,” he said questioningly. “It was,” Charlie added. “But this time, Afton’s not the one causing glitches.” 

Sans looked at them intently. “What’s going on?” 

Ellie cleared her throat. “It’s Vanny. It looks like she’s taken after him and is somewhere in one of our universes, we just don’t know where.” 

Sans sighed, looking at the floor. “So... you’re telling me we have to hunt down another murderous psycho?” 

“Pretty much,” Jeremy said in an exasperated voice. 

Papyrus walked in, carrying a cookie tray laden with several glasses of cocoa. “HERE YOU ARE! FRIENDSHIP COCOA!” He passed the drinks around and struck a pose, pleased with himself as he looked around at his guests. 

“Hey, uh, Paps, I’m going to have to go with our new friends here to help them find a... pal of theirs. Can you take my shift for me?” 

Papyrus looked at his brother for a moment. “NONSENSE! NO SANS, I WILL HELP FIND YOUR ‘PAL’!” 

Fritz shot a look at Sans and whispered to Ellie. “If this guy comes, Vanny will eat him alive.” 

“Hey, bro, um... why don’t you search Hotlands and Waterfall for me? We’ll cover more ground that way.” Sans said. Papyrus nodded excitedly. “SPLENDID IDEA SANS! WHO IS THIS PERSON I AM LOOKING FOR?” 

“A rabbit named Vanny,” Susie said hurriedly. “Why don’t we get going?” Papyrus nodded, bounding out the door. “I WILL FIND YOU NEW FRIEND!!” 

“Well, that takes care of that,” Jeremy said, standing to close the door. Ellie nodded. “Time to get the rest of our gang,” she said, pulling a disc from her bag. 

“Here we go,” she said, inserting it into her laptop. Within seconds they no longer were in Sans’ living room, but on the deck of a ship. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

“Hey, isn’t this Silver’s ship?” Jeremy asked looking around. “Yeah,” Charlie said. “But where’s Daria and Jim?” 

“Let’s go ask Silver,” Ellie said, walking in the direction of the stateroom. She knocked on its door and the sound of a peg-leg came from the other side before it opened. 

“Ellie! What in blue blazes are ye doin’-oh,” Silver said, glancing behind her to see everyone else. “Let me guess. Ye need Jimbo n’ Daria.” Ellie nodded. “Do you know where they are?” 

“Montressor with Sarah. Lucky fer y’all I’m on me way there now. We’ll be arrivin’ in a half hour or less.” 

Ellie nodded. “That’s... really lucky for us. Thanks, Silver.” 

The cyborg nodded. “Mind tellin’ me how ye got here?” Charlie stepped forward, motioning for everyone else to leave as she began explaining everything to Silver. 

Ellie stepped outside to the quarterdeck and leaned on the railing, pulling out her phone. She shot a text to Daria. 

“Guess who’s coming to Montressor??” 

-”Who?” 

“😉" 

-“NO WAY” 

“Silver’s bringing us. We should be there soon!” 

-”THAT’S AMAZING! I’M TELLING JIM! WOW!” 

“How are things with him anyway?” 

-”Great! It’s so awesome here, and Sarah is SUPER nice” 

“Are you guys a thing then?” 

-”Uh...not really. We’ve gone on a few double dates but that’s about it” 

“Dang. Does he know you’re married yet?” 

-”No. Don’t tell him” 

“Haha I won’t.” 

-”Good. Gotta go, Sarah needs help with groceries. See you soon!!” 

“Bye!” 

-”Bye!” 

Ellie turned her phone off, putting it in her pocket as she looked out over the rail. It must have been earlier in the day; the stars weren’t out yet. Instead there were just nebulae clouds tinted a gentle pink from the solar fires nearby. 

Jeremy came up next to her. “So... how have things been?” 

“Pretty good I guess. It’s weird going back to a world where all your new friends are video-game/movie characters, haha. You?” 

Jeremy smiled. “Better, now that Afton’s gone. Most of his followers seem to have lost their confidence since their master’s not there to guide them. Way fewer disappearances in the last few months.” 

Ellie giggled. “That’s always good then!” Jeremy laughed. “Sure is. I’ve missed you guys though...” 

Ellie nodded, her smile falling a little. “I’ve missed you all too. Even though we only had like a week together, it’s been hard not hanging out.” Jeremy cleared his throat. “Guess we’ll have to do that more this time, huh?” Ellie smiled. “Guess so.” 

“PLANET HO!” The lookout called, pointing ahead. Ellie and Jeremy ducked over the railing as the crew emerged from below deck, some climbing the rigging to get a view of their oncoming destination. 

Silver climbed down the stairs; Charlie close behind as he approached the others. “Alright, I’ll be takin’ ye down ta the Benbow. Come on, get to t’e skiffs!” 

They all went below deck to the lowest level of the ship, all just barely managing to fit in the boat as Silver engaged the vessel, flying them down to the planet’s surface. 

Silver gently guided the skiff to a docking port as everyone clambered out. Ellie recognized the re-built Inn standing tall just a little ways away, a girl and boy standing just outside its entrance. 

The two seemed to be talking until the girl looked their direction. She uncrossed her arms, laughing, waving as she ran their direction, the boy close behind her. 

Ellie looked over, squinting until she realized who it was. “Daria!!” she ran over as quick as she could meeting them in the middle with a big hug, the others followed. “Oh my gosh Dar how have you been??” Ellie started, “Both of you!” pointing at Jim as well. “great how about you!!??” Daria replied. “Been better heh, how do you like things here?” Daria’s smile widened even more, and Jim looked over, he seemed curious to hear this response as well, “I don’t know where to even begin! I LOVE it here so much! It’s so much better than school and everything- I'm going to the academy with Jim and training to be a Navy Officer!” 

Jim wrapped his arm around her shoulder and squeezed her, “And she's a natural” he added, blushing slightly. Daria laughed, “yeah is that what’s it's called?” Jim let her go and looked at her, “Don’t even try that with me I’ve been sailing with a lot of people and you are sooooo much better than they are and you haven't been doing it your whole life.” 

Daria blushed, “uhm, what are you guys doing here though? I mean we’re glad you’re here but is there a reason?” she asked, sounding a little worried. Ellie sighed, “uh so you remember Vanny?” Daria nodded. “so, I kind of forgot to add her to the code when we trapped William and now, she’s basically doing the same thing as William and we kinda need help? Gosh I’m so sorry I know you had plans uh- all of you-” Jim looked up at Ellie, “hey its ok! We’d be glad to help! We know she’s not here right? Let's get everything we need so we can be more prepared this time and then we can track her down.” Ellie smiled, “yeah that sounds good.” Daria nodded, “great, let's get to the ship and we can get everyone settled again.” 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Once they were all on board, Jim started heading down a hallway, “the armory is down this way, we can start getting weapons now.” Daria stopped, “wait wait wait, we don’t know where Vanny even is so what’s the rush! We know she isn’t here so why don’t we just hangout for a little while until we figure stuff out?” Fritz stared off into the distance, “Sleep was nice.” Gabriel hit him as Susie giggled, “what?” he asked. Jim looked up at Daria, “That sounds great to me! I’m just trying to prevent another unarmed ambush from happening again so don’t mind me...” he skipped off down the hall as Daria rolled her eyes laughing. 

“how about we leave tomorrow morning? I don’t know how long you guys have been together, but I want to catch up with you all.” “yeah but how long have you guys been together?” everyone was almost started hearing sans talk as he had been so quiet the entire time. Charlie walked forward, “not long, about an hour before we came looking for you and then we basically came straight here after that.” Sans nodded and walked over to the stairs as he started walking down them, “Neat, I’m going to the galley if anyone wants to join.” Fritz forced everyone to come with him, pushing and pulling them all down the stairs. “Hey, remember when you face planted here?” Jeremy asked after Fritz shoved him to the edge of the stairs. “Don't make the person standing behind you while you’re in front of a flight of stairs mad genius” Fritz said back, patiently. Daria and Ellie giggled and followed. They chatted and talked to their friends for hours until it was dark out. Ellie walked over and pulled Daria away from everyone for a second, she had questions. 

“what do you mean there's nothing between you and Jim?!” She asked laughing. Daria rolled her eyes, “what do you want me to say? We’ve known each other for 4 months.” Ellie laughed, “if you were my parents you would've been married by now” Daria blushed, “Look I like him, he likes me and that’s what I'm content with at the moment!” Ellie grinned, “fine.” 

Just then, Jim came around the corner, “Uh hey Daria, I wanted to talk to you for a second, uh alone?” Ellie pulled a face as she walked away to join the others, Daria walking over to Jim. 

“what's up?” She asked, a little nervous. Jim pointed up the stairs, “there's a cool comet I thought you’d like to see, it's really visible right now.” they walked up the stairs and Daria looked up to where Jim had pointed, he was right, it was really pretty. She turned her head to ask Jim a question, but he wasn’t there. That’s when she turned around to find him behind her. “I uh, wanted to do this on Montressor but uh, plans got changed heh.” Daria squinted her eyebrows, confused. “Look, if it isn’t obvious, I like you, a lot and I just, we’ve been on dates, but I just wanted to ask, Daria? Would you uh maybe be my girlfriend?” Daria smiled, “Oh my gosh I- yes, yeah I’d- I’d love to!” Jim smiled; Daria could see he was shaking. He pulled out a bracelet that he had made and slipped it on over her wrist as he grabbed her hand. He then pulled her in and kissed her. It was the first time they’d kissed since waterfall. Daria smiled and hugged him. He chuckled, “I love you.” Daria smiled and blushed, “I-I love you too” 

She thought she’d never top that morning in Waterfall but at that moment, she knew that every day she was with Jim got better than the day before, and she couldn't help but love him for that. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Ellie laughed as Fritz and Sans continued their pun battle, watching the two throw joke after joke at each other while the others cheered on their favorite competitor. Her eyes looked to the stairs where Jim and Daria were walking down, both looking rather flushed as they took their seats next to her. 

She shot a glance over at Daria who looked over and pressed her lips together holding up a one on her hand to signify she would tell her later. Ellie shook her head to show she understood as Jim sat down next to Daria and held her hand. Ellie looked away and smiled, thinking she already had an idea of what to expect. 

Susie snorted as Sans made a joke about Foxy, the joke was good but everyone erupted into laughter at the sound Susie made. She pushed her back into her chair and slid down as her face turned red. Gabriel tried to compose himself as he put a hand on her knee, “I’ve NEVER heard that sound before, whAt?” he wheezed, losing it again. Susie sat up, “I don’t know I’ve never heard it either, it was more normal than your snorts!” Gabriel wiped a tear from his eye, “Yeah but still!” 

Jeremy laughed a little as he looked back in the corner to where the guitar was at, then at the clock. “11:30” he said. Charlie yawned, “and as usual, I’m the first one out thank you,” Sans stood up after Charlie replying, “yep me too. G'night.” Ellie looked over at Daria, “I don’t know about you guys but I’m staying up. I haven’t had this much fun in 4 months heh.” Daria smiled, “I’m down!” Fritz and Jeremy shook their heads in agreement as Gabriel and Susie stood up, “I am so sleep deprived it hurts, sorry but I’m gonna hit the hay.” Gabriel said yawning. “Yeah me too” Susie added as the started walking to the hall again, “Good night!” They called. 

The 5 of them sat in silence for a little bit until Jeremy got up and grabbed the guitar, “You guys mind if I play?” Ellie smiled, “Please do!” He sat down and quietly started playing as the rest of them chatted. 

After about 30 minutes, Fritz crashed in his chair. Jim was out cold as well. Ellie turned to Daria, “uh so what did you want to tell me?” Daria looked over at Jeremy, he was still playing guitar. She held out her wrist to reveal the bracelet. Ellie gasped, “awww that’s so sweet! I’m assuming he gave it to you?” Daria nodded her head and then started blushing, “Elllliiieee, he asked if I would be his girlfriend...” Ellie’s jaw dropped, “AWWWW” Jeremy looked up quickly, “you good?” he asked, “yeah yeah sorry!” Ellie quickly responded, “That is adorable!!!! Ahhh you guys are so cuuuute!! You said yes??” Daria blushed even more, “...yeahh...” Ellie tapped her feet on the ground, “This is adorable and if you guys don’t work out I will be s h o o k” Daria laughed, “yeahh, he’s the best” She yawned. “ah don’t be getting tired on me now” Ellie laughed as Daria yawned again, 

“Man I should probably go to bed, I haven’t got much sleep lately.” Ellie smiled, “yeah that would be good heh” Daria turned to Jim, shaking him awake, “Hey, you fell asleep out here, you need to go find your bed,” Jim yawned and shook his head as he jumped up to his feet. Daria stood up and shook Fritz awake, telling him the same thing as he walked off. “right well, g’night!” Ellie smiled, “good night” Jeremy waved. Ellie forgot he was still there. She sat back in her chair, she wasn’t that tired. She’d had nothing to do to keep her up at night now that he friend was gone so she had been going to bed pretty early, not to mention the anxiety she had been having over having to find Vanny again. 

Jeremy looked up from his playing as he placed a hand over the strings. “You still know that song?” Ellie looked up, “Oh well I actually started playing ukulele more, learned the whole piece heh.” Jeremy nodded, “nice!” 

He cleared his throat, shyly looking down at the strings. “You...wanna play?” He asked. “Really?” Ellie questioned, looking at the scarlet guitar. “Sure. It’s not too different from a ukulele,” he said, moving to sit by her. He carefully handed her the instrument and pick. 

Ellie adjusted her grip on the strings, moving her fingers to the notes to play “It’s Been So Long.” The acoustic tune flowed through the otherwise quiet galley, the squeaks and strums of the strings coming together beautifully. Jeremy hummed along as she played, smiling all the way until she played the last note. 

“Wow,” he chuckled. “You can play really well.” Ellie felt her face redden. “Thanks. It helps to have an animatronic teacher, I guess,” she said with a giggle. “Guess it does,” Jeremy laughed. “Wanna learn something else?” Ellie nodded. 

“Here to play this song...” Jeremy started. “Play this one like you would a ‘C’, but add this finger here,” he said, nudging her ring finger. “And then just do this...” 

For an hour they sat in the galley, showing each other tunes and songs, Jeremy giving Ellie a few tips here and there. It was midnight by the time they finally stopped. 

Jeremy ran a hand through his hair. “Man, it’s nice to have someone who actually wants to learn with me,” he said with a grin. “It’s nice to have someone who wants to teach me,” Ellie replied, smiling shyly at him as she handed the guitar back to him. “We should do this more often,” he said, casually tuning it. Ellie nodded. 

“Hey...why don’t I give you lessons? I can teach you to play guitar and you can show me more cool songs from your world!” Jeremy said excitedly, turning to her. Ellie smiled. “I’d love that! I have so many songs we could do,” she said, grinning. Jeremy returned the gesture. “Awesome. Fredbear tunes get pretty old pretty fast,” he said with a chuckle. 

“I can imagine,” Ellie said with a grin. She yawned, checking her watch. “Oh man, it’s late. We better get to bed.” Jeremy peeked over her shoulder at the time. “Woah, yeah. We don’t want Charlie catching us out this late, haha.” He got to his feet, offering Ellie a hand up. She took it, feeling her face flush slightly as she continued up to the deck and to the sleeping quarters. 

They got to Ellie’s door first. “Well-night,” Jeremy said shyly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Night,” Ellie replied. She stepped into her room, closing the door behind her as she listened to Jeremy’s footsteps become quieter and quieter as he left down the hall. 

She collapsed on the bed, feeling extra tired as she checked her watch again. She thought back on the events of the night, smiling as she sighed, drifting off to sleep. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria awoke the next morning with a big yawn, stretching her arms and legs as she rolled over to check the time. 6:30am, she groaned. This was the 3rd time this week she had woken up this early and she didn’t know why. She sighed when she rolled over again and fell off the bed sliding to the ground as she hoisted herself up off the floor. She walked over to her closet and pulled out the outfit that she worn last time they were all here. 

Careful not to step on any of the creaky floorboards, she started to walk down the hall but paused. No sound was coming from the kitchen, Silver must have had to go somewhere, good thing she had woken up that early. She made her way to the kitchen and started pulling pots and pans from the cupboards as she began making breakfast for everyone. 

Around 7:30ish, Ellie walked into the kitchen, “Hey Dar, morning!” she said. Daria turned around, “Oh hello! Morning! How’d you sleep?” Ellie walked over to where Daria was, “Great! What about you?” Daria cracked an egg into a frying pan, “Pretty good, woke up really early again, good thing because it looks like Silver’s gone- can you hand me that spatula?” Ellie walked over and picked up the plastic spatula, “That’s good, what time did you wake up?” Daria looked up, “Uh 6:30ish-” she was interrupted by Silver walking into the kitchen, “Daria now what do ye think yer doin?” He walked over and grabbed the spatula from her hands. “Oh, I thought you left or something, sorry.” Silver turned around, “Oh now don’t be sorry, just fig’red you’d all be sleepin in” Daria sighed, “Wish I could’ve.” Silver frowned, “Now why don’t you lads go out ta the gallery and I’ll finish up ‘tis mess ‘ere?” Daria smiled, “If you insist, thank you!” The two walked out and sat down on one of the couches. 

Daria looked leaned onto the side of the couch, “So how late did you stay up last night?” Ellie looked over at the clock trying to remember, “last time I checked it was midnight but I’m pretty sure it was around 12:30” Daria nodded, “that's pretty decent. When did Jeremy leave?” Ellie stared at the guitar by the chairs they had been sitting on, they forgot to put it away, “same time I did.” Daria nodded her head yawning, “ah man I’m so tired.” Ellie laughed, “then take a nap while you still can!” Daria smiled, “yeah that’d be smart wouldn’t it...” After a few minutes of silence passed, Ellie looked over, Daria was out cold. She was glad, she could tell she was still exhausted. 

Just then, Jim came jogging down the stairs into the gallery. “Hey!” he said walking over to where the two were. “hey” Ellie whispered, Jim looked confused by the whisper until he looked over and saw Daria sleeping. He nodded his head drastically to show he got it. Ellie stood up and walked over to the guitar to put in away as Jim walked over and took her place on the couch, laying up against Daria. Ellie smiled, they were a really cute couple. Picking up the guitar and walking over to the corner she turned and faced the two. 

“So uh how’re you liking having Daria around?” Ellie asked trying to make things less awkward. Jim looked over, “It’s great, she’s been a really great help! I’m glad she stayed.” Ellie smiled, “That’s good to hear... so I uh heard about last night...” Jim blushed and quickly spoke, “I’m sorry, I don’t know if that’s like cool to be in a relationship with someone from a different world and-” Ellie laughed, quickly interrupting, “Jim it’s totally fine, you guys are actually adorable together and I was really happy when I found out, I know she really likes you, has since before she knew you were real... don’t tell her I told you that heh...” Jim blushed, “Oh uh, that’s-” Daria moved her head a little and Jim looked down, he smiled, “that’s good” Ellie almost died, it was like watching a romance movie having waited the whole movie for 2 specific people to admit their feelings and fall in love and in this movie, it had finally happened. 

A few minutes later, around 8:15ish, Susie, Gabriel and Fritz came down the hall followed a few minutes later by Charlie and Sans and later Jeremy. Daria woke up already feeling a lot better and Jim helped her over to a table where they were joined by Charlie and Fritz, the rest of them sitting at the other table and chairs around the gallery. 

“Hey” Charlie said, sitting down across from them as Fritz slid in next to her. “Hey!” Daria replied, “How’d you sleep?” Charlie laughed, “great considering I haven’t slept in 4 months” Fritz chuckled, “exactly what I was saying but what do I get, slapped.” the rest of the laughed. “yeah sorry bout that, you’re just the easiest to pick on I guess...” Fritz’s jaw dropped and he put a hand over his heart, “ouch” before he started laughing as well. 

Silver ran into the room, “Bre’fast is ready!” He started handing out plates. Ellie stood up to help him. After a few minutes everyone had a plate of food. Ellie grabbed hers and sat in a chair in the middle of the both tables as they were full. 

“Ah man this is good, thank you silver!” Susie called out after taking a few bites. Jeremy and Gabriel nodded in agreement, “yeah thanks” Sans said. Silver bowed “m’pleasure” as he walked back into the kitchen. Ellie looked over at Fritz’s table. She smiled. She was glad to be back with her friends and wished that they could all just stay in this world forever, but that wasn’t the case. She quickly finished he breakfast before standing up and walking back to her room. 

Closing her door behind her she dug through her bag and found her laptop pulling it out and turning it on. She pulled up the FNaF game and got into the code. Still no Vanny. She sighed looking at the end of her bed. She had no idea what to do now. She could be anywhere, and they had no clue who was being affected. She almost wanted to cry, they always figured out what to do last time but that was when they knew where to go and what to do. She stood up and started walking around, trying to think. “ok, William went to Undertale and treasure planet last time, why would he choose those two. There is literally nothing similar!” She started in a whisper but ended speaking out loud. She was starting to get frustrated and anxious. They need to leave by noon and she still had no idea where to even start. 

She knelt in front of her computer and started installing as many games as she could, she sat there for the next hour running scans through the code to try and find anything out of the ordinary. After almost an hour and fifteen minutes, a knock came at the door followed by Daria and Charlie walking in. “There you are, is everything ok?” Daria asked worried. Ellie didn’t look away from the screen. “Trying to find Vanny.” Even she could tell how frustrated she was from her voice. “Have you checked Undertale?” Charlie asked. Ellie stopped, trying not to show any emotion as if she did it would either be tears or laughter. “no. I must have forgot, it was peaceful when we were there and so I assumed-” She put a hand over her face and pulled up Undertale running a scan, sure enough, there was a glitch. 

She slammed her laptop closed and shoved it in her backpack turning around to face her friends, all of which looked concerned. “Let’s go.” she said, walking out the door to the gallery. “Sans I found a glitch in the Waterfall code; I think she’s there.” Sans’ eyes shrunk. “thats- that’s where we sent pap...” Ellie looked up, “I know, lets get stuff and hurry.” Everyone nodded their heads as Jim and Silver took Daria, Charlie, Gabriel and Fritz to help bring back weapons. Ellie set up her laptop on a table and opened up Undertale getting it ready to launch. 

“I learned a cool new trick this year in class,” She opened up the code and hovered the cursor over a line of code from the beginning of being in Waterfall, “Click this and it’ll take you straight there, we won’t have to hike for hours we’ll be there already.” Sans shook his head, still looking scared. Susie smiled, “That’s cool! Guess it couldn’t have helped a ton last time where we split up though huh.” Ellie smiled, “yeah I guess so” 

Silver stepped down the stairs holding all sorts of weapons followed by everyone else doing the same. They all tossed their findings on a table, Silver turned around, “Welp, dig in I s’pose” They all walked over each grabbing a weapon to use. Daria and Jim each had a cutlass, Susie, Gabriel and Jeremy took pistols, sans wanted to use his magic and Charlie and Ellie took daggers. Jim turned to Silver, “You coming?” Silver looked around, “Sorry lad, got pri’orties ‘ere, you all be safe now, don’t want any of ye dyin” Jim smiled, “no problem, see you back here soon.” They all watched as Silver left the room, waddling up the stairs. 

“ready?” Ellie called from her laptop. They all looked at each other, “ready.” Sans replied, and before they knew it, they were standing in the warm damp air of Waterfall. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

They hadn’t been there for more than twenty seconds before they heard a high-pitched voice yelling just around the corner. 

“Come on, just tell me already!! Where ARE they?!” The voice screeched. Ellie threw a glance at Sans, who already had a look of fear as they sprinted towards the shouting. They rounded the corner, skidding to a stop when they caught sight of who was yelling. 

Papyrus was facing them, gloved hands reached out to a costumed figure standing with their back facing the group. The sound of their entrance made the figure turn, showing a rather worn (and wet) rabbit suit. 

“Vanessa,” Gabriel snarled, hands balling into fists as she turned to them completely. “Finally,” she breathed out, her grip on her blade tightening. Papyrus waved from behind the woman, smiling widely. 

“I FOUND HER! SHE’S VERY EXCITED TO HANG OUT, I THINK! DID YOU HEAR HER JUST NOW? SO ENTHUSED!” 

Vanny threw a glance back at the skeleton, scoffing. “Took you long enough,” she muttered, looking back at the others. Fritz took a step forward. “Yeah, well, we weren’t so eager to get back together. Now why don’t you just come quietly, save us all the hassle.” 

The woman laughed, throwing her head back insanely as she shook her head. “Funny,” she chuckled. “I was about to ask you the same thing! BOYS!” 

One by one, a dozen or so costumed assailants glitched into existence around them, each wielding different melee weapons. They circled the group as Vanny giggled. “Have at em’,” she simpered. 

Those who had pistols immediately pulled them out, firing stun shots at their masked enemies while the others unsheathed their swords. 

The guns were missing their targets, passing through where a person was just seconds before as they glitched a few feet away. “Come on,” Fritz muttered angrily, as another shot vainly whizzed by another person. “Guess these guys learned a few tricks from their boss,” Gabriel huffed, hurriedly reloading his pistol. 

Sarah and Jim were doing their best to keep the costumed men at bay while Sans hit them with blue attacks. They seemed to be evenly matched. Papyrus was still standing behind Vanny, looking rather puzzled. 

“SHOULD I BE DOING SOMETHING?” He asked, confused. “Papyrus! Go get Undyne!” Sans yelled, thrusting a bone wall towards oncoming attackers. “UH-ALRIGHT THEN!” He replied, taking off in the other direction. Vanny growled, looking behind her as he ran. “I don’t think so,” she scowled, sprinting to follow him. 

“No! PAPYRUS!” Sans yelled, reaching a hand to where Vanny had run to before having to move to dodge an attack. “On it!” Gabriel shouted, running from the others. Jim too left the circle, following close behind the boy, cutlass in hand. 

Sans became much more aggressive in his attacks, flooding the floor with blue magic and bones as their enemies yelped, trying to avoid the oncoming charges. When the gaster-blasters came out, it took mere seconds for the masked men to glitch out completely. 

“Papyrus!” He yelled, running down the corridor. The others followed after, struggling to keep up, dashing through tall grass and rock. They made another turn just in time to see Jim pulling Papyrus away from Vanny and one of her fellow followers. Gabriel stood, using a stick to swing at them as they backed away to the end of the path. 

A duck sat at it, looking eagerly up at them as they got closer and closer. Only water was behind it, an obstacle to reaching the next path. Vanny squeaked as she backed into the duck, seeing that now there was no place to go. The duck began flying away as there wasn’t much room left on the trail, but not before Vanny grabbed onto its leg. Surprisingly, the duck was able to begin carrying her as her companion glitched over to the other side. 

Gabriel gritted his teeth. “Not getting away that easily!” He yelled, leaping off the path. Susie yelped as he fell to the water. Feet away from the river’s surface, he reached for Vanny’s leg, clutching onto it as the duck dropped nearly to the water. The woman cursed in anger, trying to kick him away before the duck dropped them to the solid ground on the other side of the river. 

Vanny was on the ground, Gabriel over her as he tried to secure her wrists. The other man ran at him, slamming him away, the two now engaging in a wrestling match as Vanny stood. “We’ve gotta help him!” Susie panicked, trying to look for another way over. Sans tried to teleport, but something seemed to be stopping him. He glitched, looking down at his hands. “What-” 

Vanny giggled, showing a piece of neon-green code over her hand as she pulled a syringe from her pocket, kneeling next to her companion who had Gabriel in a headlock. “Got one!” She said happily, taking the lid off the needle. “What’re you-” Gabriel started, eyes widening. The woman exhaled deeply, plunging the thing into his neck. Gabriel gasped, shuddering for a moment before his eyes rolled into the back of his head, going completely limp. 

Susie screamed, running to the edge of the water, Fritz just barely managing to grab her before she tried to jump. “Let’s go,” Vanny said, standing. “He won’t like this. He wanted more than one,” her companion muttered. “Well, we can try later. Right now we have to move,” she snapped, clutching his arm. Susie frantically yelled and screamed as they glitched away. 

Fritz was breathing heavily, Susie in hysterics as he clutched her by the arms, pulling her back to the group. Jeremy and Ellie just stood there frozen, mouths agape. Charlie...Charlie was stiff, eyes wide open. She didn’t look sad or frightened, just angry. Dangerously furious. 

Susie just sobbed. 

“No...not him...not him...” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The otherwise dark room became illuminated for a moment as Vanny and her companion glitched into it, carrying an unconscious Gabriel. The rest of their cult was there, sheepishly staring at the ground as they dragged him close to a monstrously large computer screen atop a wall. 

Vanny glared at them all. “That was pathetic. We had them outnumbered, and as soon as they showed any sign of aggression, you ran. Pathetic,” she spat. “I’m ashamed that you follow his lead with me. The only one loyal enough to stay and do what he asked was Sam. Now...” she said, strolling to the keyboard panel. “Do you want to tell him, or should I?” She pressed a button, booting on the computer. There wasn’t any image displayed other than a shadowed figure, face hidden in darkness. 

“Master,” they all murmured. The figure just gazed at the sight of them for a moment. “There is only one.” He said softly. Vanny nodded. “So...” the man spoke. “You thought one would be sufficient?” She shook her head. “Master, we fought the brats, but the others left, leaving myself and Vanessa to attend to your command. We could only bring one.” Sam said, keeping his head down. 

The figure leaned forward. “Is this true?” He asked, looking past the pair to the others in the room. A few nodded their heads solemnly. “I am severely disappointed.” The man spoke, ever softly. “Perhaps one of you would be so kind as to be the next candidate for our spring-model robots, hmm?” 

They shook their heads before the man yelled, causing them to jump violently. “THEN NEXT TIME STAY AND FIGHT! DON’T FLEE LIKE THE COWARDS YOU ARE! AM I CLEAR?!” Numerous ‘yes sirs’ came from the group, many of them shaking in place. The man leaned back. “I sincerely hope, for your sake, that you’ll do as I ask next time. Vanessa dear, if you’ll get our friend here going?” He spoke, somewhat angrily. She nodded, Sam helping her drag Gabriel to the other side of the room. 

“The rest of you are excused. It would do you well to leave. Immediately.” The figure said sternly. Footsteps echoed as the rest of the group frantically hurried to exit without running, leaving only Vanny and Sam. They had pulled Gabriel onto a half-made endo-skeleton, securing his wrists and ankles to it as they plugged various wires into its arms and legs. 

Vanessa took a metallic headband from a nearby table and placed it around Gabriel’s head, pushing a button on it. Whirring emitted from the piece as a pink light glowed dimly around it. The man on the screen chuckled deeply. “Soon you won’t be yourself, dear one. Hopefully some of your friends can join you soon. Then, the fun begins.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Fritz looked up at the group, Susie was latched onto him as he was trying to get her to calm down, “What are we gonna do?” he asked. Charlie looked over at Daria and Ellie. Ellie thought for a second, “Well uh that neon green thing, that was code, right? Maybe she left somewhere else?” Daria looked up clearing her throat, “where.” Ellie looked down, her hands were shaking, “I don’t know but we can find out, I just need time.” Charlie snapped back, “We don’t have time. In case you haven’t noticed, they aren’t nice people. They don’t care whether we live or die.” Ellie clenched her wrists, “I will go as fast as I can. No one knows what do right now and we’re all trying, I’ll be back if I find anything.” She started walking away to try and find somewhere to start. 

Daria sighed, “Let’s all just calm down. There’s nothing we can do except wait and be ready to go whenever we find out where we need to go.” Jim nodded, “Let’s go find somewhere to rest.” 

After walking for a few minutes, they found a place to sit. Susie sat down against a tree, Charlie and Fritz sitting next to her while Jeremy sat a little farther down, Sans on the other side of the tree. Jim and Daria set their things down over by some bushes not too far from the tree. 

Daria looked down at her wrist, moving the bracelet in circles as she sighed. Jim glanced over, smiling, “you uh, ok?” Daria looked straight ahead of her, “What if something happens to him. If we would have just- this could have been prevented but-” Jim scooted closer, hugging her. “Hey everything will work out! We’re good at coming up with plans and they’re just clowns that dress up as rabbits,” Jim let go, grabbing her hands instead as he looked into her eyes, “We’ll all be ok.” Daria smiled a little before Jim rested up against the bushes. Daria moved over and rested her head on his shoulder, and he grabbed her hand. Not even minutes later, they were both asleep. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Ellie had had it. It had been over 2 and a half hours and she had scanned over 20 games yet still not a clue of where they would have gone. She set her laptop on the ground next to her as she rubbed her ice-cold hands, they did that whenever she was anxious. Picking her laptop up again she thought. “ok what games would she have gone to? Its gotta be ones we know or else she wouldn’t go there.” she mumbled. Closing out of all the tabs of game’s code she had open, she hesitated to close out FNaF, the code at the bottom was moving down, like someone was typing something above. A chill went down her spine as she scrolled up and saw someone typing a comment: 

//I know you’re there Ellie. You can’t hide from us. 

Ellie’s heart started beating faster as she tried to respond. 

//who are you? 

/*I don’t think you need that answer from me. You can figure it out.*/ 

//where are you and what did you do with him. 

/*I am going to leave you with two choices: One, you come to your world and surrender yourselves. Two, you don’t come and block me from the code, and I will take one of your friends or family.*/ 

Ellie pressed her lips together as she tried to type, her hands were shaking a lot. 

//Please don’t hurt anyone, you have my word we’ll be there soon. 

//You have 24 hours. After that, let's hope I get the wrong person. 

Ellie stared at her screen as Vanny typed more. 

System.out.println(“24 hours”); 

The code crashed and Ellie was taken to the game launch page except now she was greeted with a “24 hours” instead of the name “Five Nights at Freddy’s” across the screen. She closed her laptop and stood up, her legs where really sore, they must have been shaking as well. 

She walked over to the spot she had last seen the group before she left them. There was no one. “Daria? Susie?? Jeremy??” no response. She looked around, no footsteps anywhere. She quickly looked over to a bridge as Undyne and Papyrus ran across, “FRIEND! I HAVE FOUND UNDYNE!!” Papyrus shouted running over to Ellie. Undyne stopped, breathing rather heavily, “What’s wrong?” She asked. Ellie smiled, “Thanks for coming but we figured it out. She’s gone now and I’m going to block her character from entering the code again, so she won’t be back.” Undyne and Papyrus stared at her with confused looks on their faces. “Uh nevermind, Papyrus did you want to see Sans?” Papyrus’ face lit up, “YES IS HE OK?” Ellie nodded her head, “Yeah I just need to find where they are-” she turned to see Jeremy making his way through the bushes, “Hey there you are” Ellie sighed in relief. “Yeah sorry we went over here, thought I heard you.” They walked over to their makeshift camp as Papyrus and Undyne followed. Papyrus instantly running over when he saw Sans, Unydne following. 

Ellie and Jeremy walked over to Daria and Jim, shaking them awake. “Hey, Dar.” Daria opened her eyes and started to sit up, “Huh?” Ellie pulled out her laptop and opened up FNaF. “We gotta go home, to our world.” Jeremy looked up in surprise, “What?” Ellie nodded her head, “That’s where Vanny is. She talked to me using comments in the code, said we had 24 hours to come to our world and surrender ourselves before she got our friends and family instead.” a look of worry spread over Daria’s face. “How do we get home?” Ellie looked over at Jeremy, “That’s what I was hoping you guys could help with, you came to our world right? Could you do it again?” Jeremy looked over at Charlie, “Hey Charlie, can you get all of us to Ellie’s world?” Charlie nodded, standing up as she pulled Susie off the ground with her. “ok cool. We have 24 hours, I think we should go there and at least be in the universe so we don’t risk it, we can get the supplies we need once we’re there.” Daria nodded, “Yeah that sounds like the best plan.” Jim stood up, grabbing onto Daria’s hand, pulling her off the ground. 

Charlie walked over, “ready?” everyone nodded. Sans turned to Papyrus. “i’ll be back, its best if you two stay.” Papyrus looked down, “BUT WE WANT TO COME HELP.” Sans chuckled, “no pap you need to stay, this girl is dangerous, and I don’t want anything happening to you. I’ll see ya when we get back.” Undyne pulled papyrus back and smiled at Sans, “Bye losers” she laughed as she walked away. 

Charlie looked back at the group, “Let’s go.” White magic swirled all around them as they glitched into nothing. They were brought back into a world with a bang on the floor as all of them lost their balance and fell over, they were in Ellie’s kitchen. Ellie quickly looked at the clock, it was still 1:30, the time she had left when they appeared in her basement the day before. “I don’t think anyone’s home, but we need to hurry because my mom gets home in like 10 minutes.” They all rushed to their feet as Ellie lead them out the back door. “Daria can you hide them in the trailer? I’m going to stay inside for when my parents get home.” Daria nodded leading them over to the camping trailer in Ellie’s backyard. After they had all flooded into the space, they locked the door behind them. 

Daria faced everyone, “Ok well we will probably be here until late tonight, so I’d get comfy if I were you.” They pulled out the couches and set up the bunk beds as they all took a place to sit. Most of them falling asleep. Daria peeked out the window as Ellie’s mom pulled in the driveway. Jim sat next to her and hugged her, kissing her cheek, “hey” he said. Daria blushed, smiling, “Hey.” He laid her head on her shoulder as he closed his eyes, arms still wrapped around her. She rested her head on his and looked over. Susie was resting her head on a wall, Fritz next to her. Charlie and Sans were sitting on the bench that they had transformed the bed into. Jeremy was sitting on the tiny patch of bed that was facing everyone from the other side of the trailer. Daria sighed as no one said anything. She didn’t mind, she just let herself fall asleep again. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

“Hey El,” Ellie’s mom said, walking into the kitchen. “Hi,” Ellie replied, trying to keep her nerves under control, glancing to the direction of the trailer. “How was school?” Her mom asked, dropping a bag of groceries on the counter. “Uh, good,” Ellie responded. 

“That’s good. Hey, could you refill the cat’s food bowl? It’s low,” her mom asked, placing a carton of milk into the fridge. “Uh huh,” Ellie replied, hurrying to the stairs. She entered the basement, walking briskly to her cat’s corner, dumping a cupful of kernels into her dish. 

She went to open the back door, planning on going to the trailer when a voice behind her made her freeze. 

“Where are your friends?” It questioned. Ellie turned around to see Vanny leaning against the wall, fingering the tip of a carving knife. 

“What do you want?” Ellie said, trying to appear confident, but even she heard the waver in her voice. “All you need to know is that I need you, that other one from this world, and one of the ghost kids. All of you would be preferable, but I’ll take what I can get. Where are they?” 

Ellie’s hands grew cold and stiff from her rapidly growing anxiety. She clutched them tightly, eyebrows narrowing. “Kinda hard to just give ourselves up just because you say so. What do you plan to do with us?” 

Vanny sighed in annoyance. “A lot of things, really. But I’m getting impatient. Last chance before I go upstairs and introduce myself to your lovely mother.” Ellie felt her mouth go dry. She swallowed, shaking as she glared at Vanessa. “Give me a few hours. I can meet you on the driveway at eleven tonight.” Vanny’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Ellie as if to detect any sign of lying, arms crossed, knife loose in her hand. “Okay. Eleven pm sharp. Don’t be late.” 

Vanny walked towards Ellie and she felt herself tense as the woman approached. Vanny pulled open the door and stepped into the backyard, pausing as she turned her head back. “And uh...no police. Got it?” Ellie nodded as the woman continued back out, glitching away. 

Ellie’s breath hitched as she put a hand to her forehead. “How are we gonna get out of this one?” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

“Ellie! Time for dinner!” Her mom called. Ellie hopped off her bed, sending another text to Daria as she walked down the hall to the kitchen. She took a seat across from her brother, back to the wall as her mom set plates of food down on the table. Ellie barely ate, becoming increasingly more anxious as evening approached. 

“You okay El?” Her dad asked, noticing all the food still on her plate. “Yeah...just not that hungry,” Ellie said shakily. “You look a little pale, hun. Are you feeling sick?” Her mom added, concerned. “Actually uh...I don’t feel so good, I’m gonna go lie down,” Ellie said hurriedly, standing from her seat. Her parents exchanged glances as Ellie began walking to the hallway. 

She paused, something catching her eye. She looked down at the waiting room by the front door. Vanny was leaned against the wall in a corner. She waved; head cocked to one side. Ellie swallowed, hurrying to her room. Closing the door with a little more force than she meant to, she walked to her bed, sitting on it as she checked her phone. She gulped, trying to keep her rapid breathing under control. 

“Four more hours.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Ellie exhaled heavily as her phone alarm went off. 10:50 PM. Taking a mini flashlight from her pocket, she pulled her sneakers on, tiptoeing out into the hallway. She flicked her light on, sneaking to the front door, careful to close it quietly as she stepped out onto the porch. 

She quickly walked to the trailer door, lightly knocking on it. Daria cracked it open, an anxious look on her face. “Is it time?” She asked. Ellie nodded. Daria stepped out of the trailer, followed by a solemn-looking Fritz. They stepped out to the middle of the driveway, waiting in uncomfortable silence for a moment. 

“Did you agree on this Fritz?” Ellie asked. Fritz nodded. “All of us volunteered to go, but Jeremy and I didn’t want Suzie going. She said if she’s staying, she wants Charlie with her. Jeremy wanted to be there for her too after that, so...” Ellie nodded. 

She looked at Daria. “How’s Jim taking this?” Daria shook her head. “Not well. It took a few hours of arguing to convince him to let me go and then some more to make him stay here.” Ellie sighed, checking her watch. 

10:59 

… 

11:00 

Ellie felt her mouth go dry as Daria gasped slightly. She looked up, seeing Vanny and her partner glitching into existence a few yards away. “Hello again,” the woman said calmly, stepping closer. “What do you want?” Fritz asked aggressively. Vanessa shook her head. “Honestly, do you kids say anything else? We want many things. Right now, it’s you. So, come quietly.” 

Fritz sniggered. “Yeah, right. That’s a good one. What made you think we’d just come when called, glitch away with you to who knows where? We never said anything about “coming quietly.” Vanessa rolled her eyes, huffing. “Okay.” 

Sam pulled a gun-looking item from his belt. He pointed it at the trio. “You know I’m already dead, right?” Fritz said mockingly. “Yeah. But they aren’t,” Vanny said, motioning to Ellie and Daria. Fritz opened his mouth, then closed it. “Great. Can we go now?” Vanny asked impatiently. Ellie looked intently at the concrete and barely nodded. 

“Finally,” Sam muttered. “On the ground. Now.” The three slowly got to their knees, staring downwards as Vanny and Sam approached them. “Hands behind your backs, palms up,” the man said, rounding behind them. They did as they were instructed, feeling zip-ties being bound around their wrists. 

Vanny worked on Fritz, tightening his binding as she leaned close to his ear. “And, for the record. That gun had darts, not bullets. Infused with a little something to calm your nerves,” she said with a smirk. Fritz breathed heavily, barely controlling his anger. Sam came around with the thing holding it close to Fritz’ neck. He grimaced as the man pulled its trigger. He slumped slightly, not unconscious like Gabriel was, but certainly weak. 

Sam jerked his head towards Ellie and Daria questioningly. Vanny nodded. “We better. They’re worth more trouble than they look.” He went to Daria first, the dart having the same effect as it had on their friend. 

Ellie tensed as Sam brought it to her now. She shut her eyes tight, feeling the needle break her skin. The effect was immediate. It was like her body felt incredibly tired, but her mind remained alert. She felt herself relax, struggling to stay sitting up as Sam put a hand on her and Daria’s shoulders. Vanny roughly grabbed Fritz around his arm. “Alright,” she muttered. Sam tightened his grip on the girl’s as their view of the driveway disappeared. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Fritz was the first one awake, he slowly opened his eyes, looking around trying to figure out where he was. He looked over at the floor next to him, Daria was still knocked out but just behind her sitting in a chair, was Gabriel. Fritz tried to move his arms up, his wrists stung as he pulled on them, he forgot they were zip tied. He moved his shoulder, pushing against the floor until he had turned himself over. “what the-” There were wires dangling in front of his face, that’s when he noticed the headband that was on. He almost jumped as Vanny giggled, “Confused? Hmm, don’t worry too much about it, in a second you won’t be able to think at all and it won’t even matter.” Fritz looked around to see if there was any other way out. There was nothing. He looked over at the chair as Gabriel moved around in it, Fritz smiled, “Gabriel! You good bro?” he shouted. Gabriel looked over at Fritz and smirked. 

“He doesn’t understand yet.” Vanny told Gabriel as they both giggled. Fritz looked over at Daria and Ellie, both still unconscious, neither of them had headbands on. Gabriel stood up and took his headband off, slowing walking over to Fritz. He stood over his for a while until he turned to Vanny, “May I do the honors?” Vanny laughed, “Please do.” Gabriel reached down to tamper with what Fritz was assuming were buttons on the headband. He reacted quick trying to scoot back it was a pathetic effort with them both on feet and they eventually got to the headband. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Susie bit her lip, “They sure have been gone for a while, maybe we should go out and check...” Charlie peeked out the window, “Looks like theirs no one.” Jim quickly jumped up, peering out the window for himself as well only to see the same darkness they saw. Just then, the cat walked by casually, triggering to motion sensor light making it only a tad bit easier to see in the dark. Jim groaned, “I’m going. You guys can come or stay I don’t care, they’ve been out there for too long.” Charlie looked over at Jeremy and Susie and sighed as they all stood up to follow him outside. 

Running to the driveway they were greeted with no body. Susie backed up a little, Charlie could hear her breathing picking back up as she gave her a short side hug. Jim bent over and picked something up off the driveway as he turned around slowly, his face ghost white. Charlie walked over, “What is it?” Jim handed the paper to her as he walked a little to the side. Charlie read the note aloud, “Don’t worry, they aren’t dead, and we won’t be killing them, it’ll be much worse. Oh, and we aren’t in that world so look all you want; you won’t be finding us anytime soon. xoxo” Charlie crumpled the paper up and threw it on the ground, “We gotta figure out where they are.” Jeremy looked up laughing nervously, “no really? I was thinking we could stay here for a while.” Charlie glared up at him as she walked back over to Susie who was almost about to fall over from shaking. 

“We need to use the code.” Jim responded quietly, face still pale. “Do any of you know how to code though? Cause I don’t.” Jeremy added. Charlie looked at the ground before speaking up, “I know how to program.... robots.... I could take a look just what computer would we use?” Jeremy looked up, “One second.” he ran to the trailer and came back with Ellie’s computer bag. “She left this” Charlie grabbed it from him and carefully pulled out the laptop. “Dang, anyone know her password?” Jeremy looked up, “I think I saw her put it in when we looked up a note video on YouTube, maybe try appl3p13?” He thought that sounded right. Charlie typed it in, “Hey it worked! Nice remembering. Alright now lets find your coding files....” 

Charlie looked through Ellie’s laptop for the next few minutes until finding out how to download and access editing on any game’s code, she started figuring out how to do the scans as well. After around 45 minutes, they still had nothing. 

“I don’t know where they would be.” Jim spoke, still staring at the ground, “Didn’t she say that we probably wouldn’t be able to trace her?” Charlie looked at the cat walking up to them, “Yeah she did....” Charlie reached down and pet the cat as she rubbed her head on her leg and hopped in her lap. “Guys, what if we stayed here, until they come back.” Jim looked up very abruptly and opened his eyes wider, “are you kidding me?? No way!” Charlie looked up at him, “Jim we don’t have that many other options right now. Glitchtrap is hidden in the code to the point where we can't even find him. Vanny probably took them somewhere related to him and so there’s no way trace where they went! If we wait here, ready, then when they come back, we can be ready.” Jeremy looked to the side, “if they come back.” he mumbled. Charlie glared over. “when they come back.” 

Susie looked down at her hands in her lap, they were cold and shaking as she raised one to wipe away a tear slowly rolling down her cheek. “She’s right, there’s probably no way to leave and if there was, it's going to be advanced enough code that we can't break through.” She sniffed. Charlie put her arm around her shoulder as she squeezed her, “They’ll be ok” She reassured. 

They picked up the laptop and walked back into the trailer before they got caught and had to explain themselves. As they shut the door, Susie walked over and rested her head on the wall, sitting on the same bench she had been on all day again and letting herself fall asleep. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria shot her eyes open as she looked around, trying to move her head as much as she could. Rolling onto her back, she sat up catching her breath from the sudden movements and looking around. Fritz and Gabriel where standing in a corner of the room, “Hey! Gabriel, Fritz! Come help us get these zip-ties off-” They both turned to face her, neither of them started walking over, they didn’t even smile or say hello. Daria felt something was off as she turned around, Ellie had her eyes open but was fighting not to close them again. “Ellie! Wake up!” she flung her leg around and nudged her arm with her foot. Ellie looked over at her, “Where are we?” she moaned trying to sit up. Daria looked over at the boys again, “I- I don’t know.” 

Ellie looked over at the wall next to them as she scooted over to it and pushed her back up against it, slowly forcing herself to stand, Daria followed. “Ah look who finally decided to wake up! Took you long enough.” They turned around to face Vanny. “Where are we.” Daria demanded. Vanny pulled her head back a tiny bit as she swayed to the side and started walking forward, “Don’t worry about us hurting you, we need people alive, not dead. He needs you.” Daria shot Ellie a confused glance, “What are you talking about??” Vanny looked at them dead in the eyes, “You both are brave, sure, you’ve proven that you can put up a fight when needed to and therefore we are extending an offer to you, one that has two consequences based on your decision. One is, you join our cult we make you stronger and you live the rest of your life happy while, two is you don’t join and we go back to your home and kill every one of your friends while you watch, you won’t be fortunate enough to be killed yourself though, that would be too easy. You’ll spend the rest of your miserable little life locked in the code of our game. No one will see you and you will die alone with no one remembering you even exist.” She laughed as she swooped in by their faces. 

Ellie looked down at the ground before looking over at the screen, next to it was a little laptop, probably the one Vanny used to go everywhere while out and about in other worlds. She looked over at Daria, there was a worried look that showed on her face as Ellie winked at her. Daria looked confused as Ellie started talking, “No. We won’t join your cult.” Fritz and Gabriel stepped out from the corner as Vanny called their names, “Your little friends disagree with you...” Gabriel glared at Daria, “This cult isn’t bad, its good and its where we are supposed to be. Join us.” Daria was starting to become outright terrified as she realized what the headbands had done to them until Gabriel... winked? Daria looked very confused before understanding what was happening, “You’re wrong.” She mumbled, trying to sound angry. Vanny laughed, “Very well then, I won’t force you to do something when you very much know the consequences... Fritz, Gabriel, make sure they don’t leave or do anything dumb” she slowly started glitching out until she had vanished, Sam walking out from a corner and doing the same. 

Ellie and Daria quickly held out their hands as Fritz and Gabriel cut the zip-ties, Ellie immediately darted over to the laptop as soon as she was cut loose and opened it. Thankfully, there was no password. She pulled up the coding tab that Vanny had left open, revealing the way they had managed to get into the real world, in the bottom of the code, it had the code for the room they were in now. She quickly deemed this important and emailed the file to herself. “Alright let’s g-” She was interrupted by a screen coming to life with a voice easily recognizable as William Afton speaking through it, “You’re smart you know, we could use people like you here.” he sounded sick almost. Daria looked up at the screen, “I’d rather die.” She hissed back at the image. William chuckled, “we can arrange that... just ask your little friends next to you...” Gabriel glared up at the screen, “You’re a sick person that caused us a lot of pain, but rest assured knowing that you are the least of our problems now.” William laughed, “you can never escape me.” 

Ellie turned, “Let’s just go.” They glared up at the screen one last time before glitching off into the void for themselves. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

They landed back on Ellie’s driveway with a light thud, the sun just barely beginning to peek over the mountains in the distance. “Do you think they’re still here?” Daria said as they hurried towards the trailer. “Where else would they go?” Ellie asked, hand on the knob. She twisted it, pushing it open. 

“Ellie!” Voices shouted. Their friends appeared from the darkness of the room, coming to meet her. “Daria, Fritz! Gabriel?! How did you escape?” Charlie exclaimed. “They tried to use some mind-control thing on Fritz and Gabriel, but I guess it didn’t work or something. They got us out of here, but we gotta move before they realize we’re gone and come looking,” Ellie spoke, ushering the others inside the trailer. 

Once the door was shut, Ellie pulled out Vanny’s laptop, opening its lid. “Crap,” she muttered as a ‘DISABLED’ icon appeared on screen. “Where’s the other one?” She asked hurriedly. “Right here,” Jeremy replied, handing it to her. As she reached for it, a dagger flew into its screen, sending shards of metal and glass flying. It glitched and electricity sputtered before it died completely. 

“What the frick-” Ellie yelped, head whipping to where the knife came from. Gabriel stood there stone-faced, Fritz rigid beside him as they glared at the group, eyes dark. “Can’t let you do that,” he said, hand extended from the throw. Susie, who had latched onto his arm as soon as he arrived, suddenly let go, stepping backward toward the others. 

“Guys, what’s going on?” Jeremy asked, taking a step forward. Fritz tensed. “You didn’t really think they were that incompetent, did you? After all the work they took getting you there? We’re with them. We let you escape. And now that we know where everyone else is, we can call the others to come fetch you,” he said in a monotone voice, pressing a button on a new watch around his wrist. 

The band lit up, making light beeping noises. Gabriel extended his hand to the door, locking it as Fritz took a step nearer to the group, hand reaching for a dart gun on his belt. 

Charlie watched this unfold, thinking fast. She quickly raised a hand, causing a flash of light to erupt from it, sending Fritz flying back. The light surrounded everyone else, bringing them to her as she began to teleport to the first place she thought of. The last thing they saw was Fritz and Gabriel running back to them as several others glitched into the room... 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

It was a rough transportation; instead of landing gracefully on the floor, they appeared several feet from it, falling painfully to the ground. 

“Aw man,” Sans groaned, sitting up as he rubbed his skull. “That could have been a little smoother,” Jim added, rolling his shoulder. 

“Sorry. I couldn’t establish a secure connection fast enough,” Charlie apologized. Daria shook her head, helping Susie up. “Not your fault. You got us outta there,” she said. Ellie stood up, everything aching from the fall as she looked around. 

“Uh...where are we?” She asked. The room was dark, walls barely visible, metal groaning around them. “Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental...I think we’re in the elevator entry room,” Charlie murmured, glancing behind them at a gap where the elevator would be if on their level. 

“Why here?” Daria questioned, a confused look on her face. “It was the first place I thought of,” Charlie replied, eyeing the vents. “Well, we should probably go, in case anyone comes down,” Ellie said, looking at the empty elevator shaft. Charlie nodded, bending to crawl through the vent. 

Daria and Ellie waited at the back as one by one everyone began going through. Daria rubbed her head, grimacing. “You okay?” Ellie inquired. “Yeah...I’ve just got a bit of a headache. And my neck hurts, but it was probably from the fall,” Daria replied. 

“Is it bruised or something?” Ellie asked. Daria shrugged. “Want me to take a look?” She questioned. “Sure,” Daria responded, pulling her hair over her shoulder to expose the back of her neck. Ellie pulled out her flashlight, flicking it on as she directed it to Daria’s neck. 

What she was expecting was some sort of abrasion or inflamed skin...not what was lodged just above her spine. Ellie gasped, hand over her mouth as she stared at a small metal plate hooked onto Daria’s neck, a small violet circle flashing in a corner of the thing. “What is it?” Daria asked anxiously. “Uh...I don’t know, but it’s not good,” Ellie said shakily. 

Daria cupped a hand around to her neck, feeling around before her fingers went low enough to feel the metal of the plate. “What-” she started, head turning. “Here, hold on,” Ellie muttered, taking out her phone. She took a picture, handing her phone to Daria to look. She examined the photo, mouth agape in shock. “What is that thing?” She questioned, panic evident in her voice. “I don’t know,” Ellie said, pocketing her phone as she knelt to crawl through the vent. 

“Maybe Vanny did it when we were unconscious,” Ellie suggested as the metal groaned under them. “Maybe...do you have one?” Daria asked as they crawled through, coming out into the Control Module room where the others were making a trip through the next vent to Funtime Auditorium. Ellie felt her neck. “Nope. Weird. Do you think it was for mind-control stuff?” Daria shrugged. “I hope not. Haven’t felt murderously inclined, so...” 

They followed everyone into the dark auditorium. “Where are we going?” Ellie whispered to Charlie, who was having everyone hold onto each other before they kept going in darkness. “Nightguard office. It’s the most secure.” 

Daria trod carefully on the glossy tile, trying not to make a sound as she kept her hand on Susie’s shoulder. Suddenly, a voice rang out, making her jump. “It’s a shame you couldn’t join the party.” 

“What?” She thought to herself in confusion. That voice definitely wasn’t from anyone in her group, and it sounded a lot like...William. “Did you guys hear that?” She whispered. “Hear what?” Susie whispered back. “That voice,” Daria replied. Susie shook her head, confusion on her face. “You okay?” She asked. Daria paused. “Yeah...” she said hesitantly. 

They continued through the room slowly, nearing the door. Daria peered around Susie to Charlie who was directing them to the left. 

Daria froze as the voice spoke again. “You left before my escorts could bring you and your friends. What a misfortune,” it said. “I think I’m a lot better off where I am right now, thanks. How are you talking to me right now?” Daria thought to herself. “I assume you’ve found my device,” William’s voice spoke. Memories of the plate coursed through her mind. “What else does it do?” Daria thought as Charlie gently pushed the nightguard door open, ushering everyone inside. 

“You’ll see. Perhaps while you sleep tonight, we can talk face to face. Your mind will be a little more versatile then. Be seeing you,” he said. Daria waited a moment, but no other words from the man came. Sans closed the door, the light from the TVs on the desk barely illuminating the small space. 

Daria walked over to Ellie, tapping her shoulder. “Hey, I need to talk to you about something-” she started, before Charlie ‘shh’ed everyone. The sound of vents creaking echoed into the office as a metallic laugh rang just outside the door. “Hey, BonBon...looks like we’ve got some new friends!” It said maniacally. 

Everyone shrank into a tight circle as the pixelated images of FunTime animatronics appeared on the security camera tablet, all already uncomfortably close, creeping nearer to the office. A knock rang on the door, causing everyone to jump. The door slid open. 

“Well, lookie what we’ve got here, BonBon!” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria jumped up trying to run over and close the door, but it was too late. FunTime Freddy stepped in, swinging BonBon in after him. Sans looked very confused, “How many possessed animatronics did this guy feel the need to create-” Jim kept his eye on the robot, grabbing Daria’s hand and pulling her closer to him, “I don’t know...” 

Funtime Freddy started to walk over to what everyone was assuming, kill them until he stopped, his creepy smile dwindling away as he looked over at the group. He put BonBon down to his side and tilted his head, staring at Charlie. Charlie calmed her breathing and stepped forward slowly, letting go of Susie’s arm. “h-hey” She said, voice shaking, “We won’t hurt you... you know we won’t” She smiled a little. Funtime Freddy looked at her for a second more before he relaxed and let off a small smile too, “It’s been awhile, c-charlie" His clown like voice coming back as it glitched through the dark room. Charlie laughed, “Yeah, sorry about that uh, look,” She looked back at the others, “We are kind of hiding from a cult that William started, and we need your help.” Funtime Freddy picked BonBon up again looking down eagerly at Charlie, “Well of course!! What do you need??” Charlie smiled, “you got a laptop or something like that??” Funtime Freddy’s eyes lit up even more as he smiled, “Yeah! Follow me.” He turned and started walking down the hall. 

Charlie turned and beckoned for all of them to follow. Daria tugged on Jim’s hand as the rest of the group followed. Ellie ran up to talk to Daria, “You still feel ok?” Daria placed a hand on her neck, “Yeah, still hurts though.” Ellie frowned, moments later smiling and staring up at Daria, “so uh, what didja think of Funtime Freddy?” Daria put a hand over her face, “Are you really going there?” She lifted up the other hand that was attached to Jim’s. Ellie laughed, “Yeeeaaahh yeaaaah I know you gotta boyfriend now but stillll” Daria rolled her eyes, laughing. 

They followed Funtime Freddy for a few more minutes until they went around a corner and he turned to them, “I’m g-going to go tell everyone a-about you so they don’t freak out! You wait here!” He laughed as he went farther down the hall leaving the rest of them there. They all looked around trying to figure out where they were. Ellie glanced over at the wall farther down the hallway. There was a poster with Funtime Freddy’s face on it, it read, “FunTime Freddy wants to be your friend!! Come join in on all the fun at Circus Baby’s pizza world!” She smiled, nudging daria’s arm pointing to the poster, “feddy cult” Daria wheezed as she hung her head down, “Why?” Susie looked over, “What did you just say?” Ellie and Daria laughed as Ellie tried to contain herself, “Feddy cult, it’s a joke” Charlie laughed, “Uhm can I join?” the rest of them laughed asking the same. Daria shook her head, “Uh duh you can join” 

Just then, they heard loud banging of metal on metal coming down the hall as the bodies of the massive funtime animatronics came into view. They all looked over and held their breath, hoping that the rest of them would be as friendly as Funtime Freddy was. Funtime Freddy walked over and stepped aside, revealing all the mascots. “alright well, guys this is Circus baby, Funtime Foxy, and Ballora.” Circus Baby was the only one who waved, the others just sitting there staring. Charlie chimed in, “Uh Hi! Nice to meet you... I’m Charlie Emily and this is Susie, Jeremy, Ellie, Daria, Jim, and Sans. We’re from different worlds but we need help. We need to stop William Afton.” Ballora winced as she looked down at them, “What is he doing.” She asked, talking very softly. Charlie looked up at her, “What he’s been doing. Hurting people. And we want to stop him this time.” Ballora nodded looking straight ahead of her again as she responded, “I’m sorry Charlie. I wish I would’ve known sooner, then I could have stopped him.” Charlie smiled, “Don’t blame yourself,” She looked at the group, “I’ve made friends!” 

Funtime Freddy stepped forward, “Here’s the laptop you needed, a technician left it here.” Charlie grabbed it, smiling. “thank you and oh here-” Magic started whirling around her hands again as it wrapped around the robots and shrank them into ghosts like the missing children. Funtime Freddy, now a blonde-haired boy, smiled, “Oh my word! This- you can do this?!” Charlie nodded, “Only for a little bit, I’ll have to change you back before we leave.” The others nodded. Circus Baby, or, who could now be identified as Elizabeth Afton, walked forward, “I know a good spot you could do what you need to with the laptop, if Anna’s ok with you going in FunTime auditorium that is,” she looked over at where Funtime Foxy was, now sitting a curly brown haired girl, she nodded her head, “good with me.” Elizabeth smiled, “alright then, over this way.” 

They all followed her down to a really big room which seemed to be filled with nothing. She led them over to a desk with blueprints on it, clearing them all off the table and throwing them on the ground as Charlie placed the laptop on its surface. Ellie walked over, “alright uh... what should we do?” Charlie looked back at the group picking up on Daria. “Hey Daria, you ok? You look pale...” Ellie turned around and Jim grabbed Daria’s hand walking in front of her. Touching her face, he tried to figure out what was wrong. Ellie stood up and walked over to look at the chip on the back of her neck. “It's.... blinking...” Jim and Charlie walked over to take a look. “This has to be something Glitchtrap.” She confirmed as the other two looked worriedly at the chip. Charlie tried to pull at it to see if it would come out but was stopped when Daria whipped her head around and slapped Charlie’s hand out of the way. 

Charlie stepped back in shock, “what the-” Daria grinned, “It’s ok. Just leave it. I’m fine.” Charlie shot a glance over at Ellie. “ok...” Daria walked off into the other side of the room. Sans walked over, “What’s with the sudden toleration of a chunk of metal stuck in her neck huh?” Charlie sighed, “I don’t know... did any of you see a something like that on Gabriel or Fritz?” Susie wasn’t paying attention much, but Jeremy shook his head, “not that I remember.” Sans and Jim nodding their heads in agreement. Ellie stared at the ground then looked up at the group, “Let’s just keep an eye on her. For now, we need to figure out this code.” Charlie nodded her head. “what are we going to do?” Ellie sighed, “I have no idea.” 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Vanny turned around very quickly, “YOU LET THEM GET AWAY?!” Gabriel looked at Fritz with a frown. Vanny threw her hands down to her sides as she grunted, “for your sakes you better as heck know where they are.” Fritz looked up at her, “I don’t know for sure but knowing Charlie, probably a different fnaf game.” Vanny gripped her knife and saw Gabriel flinch out of the corner of her eye, “Oh don’t worry. I won't kill you, William will, after he finds out you failed him again.” she turned to face Fritz again, “I don’t want a maybe I want a definite answer. Thankfully, we have eyes inside their group. We’ll figure out soon enough and when we do,” She pointed her knife at them, “You better hope you’re prepared to do your job.” She grabbed onto Sam’s arm and pulled him out of the trailer as they glitched into nothing. Gabriel looked over at the couch sitting down. He was tired and didn’t fight it, dozing off thinking about how they were going to catch the group, and everything would be fine. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria stared at the wall. She didn’t know what was happening, but her mind was going all sorts of places. She couldn’t think straight. That’s when she heard the voice again. “don’t worry, I can’t hurt you.” A shiver went down her spine as she thought back, “yeah cause hurting people is so unlike you.” They voice laughed, “I said I can’t, not I didn’t want to.” She rubbed her arms and pulled her legs up to her chest as she sighed. Susie walked over to her sitting down a little farther away than where she was. Looking over, she smiled as she said, “It’s late Daria, we’re all going to go to bed.” Daria nodded her head as she stared at the wall again, thankfully, no one else tried to talk to her as they all found places along the walls to curl up and sleep. Jim had told her good night, but she didn’t respond, there was too much commotion going on in her head. Before she knew it, she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. Leaning against the wall, she left herself close her eyes and fall asleep. That’s when the thoughts started again. 

“Daria, where are you. I want to help you escape.” Daria was almost a little scared at first, she felt conscious, but asleep. “are you William?” She thought. “Many think that I am, but I’m not. I am something much worse. But don’t worry, I like you and your friends, and I want to help you.” Daria sat still for a few moments before thinking something, “How do you want to help?” The voice sighed, “I have friends that are looking for you, no intent of hurting you they just want to help, we are your friends, and we want to help you. If you tell us where you are, then we can come help you.” Daria stopped, “Help me with what?” “Catching this, William Afton or I guess, putting an end to his ‘legacy’” Daria could feel herself tensing up, “I- I don’t know....” The voice replied, sounding very kind, “trust me, I hate him just as much as you do, I can help you. I just need to know where you are Daria, that’s it. No tricks.” Daria could feel the sweat drops running down her physical face as she thought of an answer, “I guess we do need help...” “Yes, that's it, that’s all we want to do.” “I think we are at Sister Location, or Circus Baby’s I guess... you promise to help?” the voice laughed, “of course dearie. See you in the morning.” 

The minute Daria heard the word ‘dearie’ she sat up, for real this time. She was surrounded by her friends. “Daria are you ok?” Jim asked. Daria was gasping for air, “n-no! G-glitchtap, the c-chip in my neck. It’s a mind thing, he- he knows where we are. Guys we need to leave now.” Charlie looked confused, “How did he-” Daria grabbed her arm, “I’ll explain later, we need to leave. Now.” Ellie nodded and ran over to grab the laptop, waking up the FunTimes on the way. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

“GABRIEL. WAKE. UP.” He sat up, rubbing his eyes as he made out 3 people standing over him, quickly sitting up as he realized they were some of the cult members. “sorry-” Vanny interrupted, “We know where they are. Let's go.” 

Part 2: 

Elizabeth led the others through secret mechanic rooms, hurrying everyone along as they jogged in semi-darkness. Pulling open another heavy door, she ushered the group inside, pushing it closed after them. The sound of an elevator whirring echoed through the vents. 

“We’ve gotta hurry,” she said, pushing her blonde hair from her face as she ran to where Ellie had her laptop on a table, hastily typing something on it. “Okay, I’ve got a fixed location for Fazbear’s Fright,” Ellie said, finishing some last code. “Why there?” Susie asked, glancing to the door. “It’s the last place William will expect us to be. I reckon after they realize we’re not here, he’ll check your restaurant,” Ellie said, concentrated on the screen. Susie nodded. 

“Ready?” She asked, a finger over the enter button. ‘Yes’ came from the others before Elizabeth spoke. “Can I come? I want to help,” she said, stepping forward. Ellie glanced at Charlie, who looked at the girl. “I suppose, but why?” Charlie asked. “He’s my dad. I can probably offer some assistance. Besides, he has to stop. What he’s doing isn’t okay, and it never has been,” the girl replied. Charlie nodded. 

“Cody should come too,” Elizabeth added. Cody raised an eyebrow, glancing from where he was leaning against a wall. “He’s really smart and knows my dad. He could be a big help-if he’s okay with coming, of course.” Cody glanced to the side, then shrugged, smiling oddly. “Sure,” he chuckled, coming to the laptop. Charlie nodded. “Anyone else?” She asked. 

Clara shook her head, going to the door with Anna. “I don’t want to have more direct contact with my husband and those “friends” of his. Good luck to you,” she said, opening the door to go back to the main building. Charlie raised a hand, turning the two back to their robot forms. “Good luck to you too. Be safe,” she said. Clara smiled, disappearing into the darkness. 

Metal echoed through the hallways, getting steadily nearer. “Hurry, they’re coming,” Daria said frantically. Ellie nodded, pressing the ‘enter’ button. Within a second, they were gone. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Vanny led the others to the Main Control Module room, sending different groups through the vents. “Come on,” she muttered, leading Sam, Gabriel, and Fritz to Ballora gallery. 

They emerged from the vent shaft, standing in the dim room. The figure of an elegant ballerina stood frozen on stage, a half-dozen mini ones at her feet. “Search,” Vanny said, flicking on a flashlight. The others pulled out their own lights and shone them around the room, walking around assorted party decorations, tables, and empty boxes, searching any hiding places they could see. 

“Anything?” Sam inquired, emerging from the breaker room. “No,” Gabriel replied, standing from a stack of cardboard boxes in a corner. Fritz shook his head, coming from a maintenance closet by the stage. Vanny huffed. “They’re probably in another room, then.” They began to approach the vent when a woman’s voice spoke deeply. “You won’t find who you’re looking for,” she uttered. 

Vanny whipped around. “Who said that?” She demanded, flashlight scanning the room. “Here,” the voice said again. Vanessa’s light hit Ballora, who had moved to turn her head to them, eyes still closed. “Another haunted machine?” Vanny muttered in question, approaching the robot. “Unfortunately,” Ballora replied. “Where are the brats?” Vanny questioned, a hint of frustration in her words. 

“Not here. I’m afraid you’ve missed them. Again, if my assumptions are correct,” Ballora spoke. Vanny growled in anger. “And why,” she spat. “Would I believe the word of a twisted robot?” Ballora laughed, putting Gabriel and Fritz on edge oddly. “You don’t have to. Just take theirs,” she said, head turning to the vents. The four turned to see a few of the other search groups shakily approaching Vanny. 

“W-We couldn’t...find anyone, miss,” one said, eyes downward. Vanny’s eyes glazed over in rage as she jerkily turned to look at the others. They shook their heads, stepping backwards as Vanessa breathed heavily. Exhaling roughly, she raised her wrist, pressing a button on a watch. A heavily pixelated figure appeared on its face. 

“Master...” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Susie huffed, prying open another party room door, coughing as dust and ash fell from the ceiling. They arrived nearly an hour ago, splitting up to explore the half-burnt building for a good place to settle. So far, the most habitable places were the office, a few private party rooms, and the girl’s bathrooms. She glanced around the space. Rubble was strewn on the floor; ashen remains of decorations and chairs littered all over. Part of the ceiling was caved in. She shook her head, stepping back into the hallway. 

She walked back to the office, watching her step to avoid shattered glass and splintered wood. She rounded another corner, now in view of the window. She waved at the others, who all were straightening the room, cleaning out hazardous objects and bringing in the still-sturdy chairs they could find. Charlie waved back, looking back at the laptop screen where Ellie was typing. 

Susie entered the office, walking over to where the two were at the desk. “Find anything?” Charlie asked. Susie shook her head. “Just more burned-up party hats. How are things here?” Ellie sighed. “I’ve been trying to track Vanny’s location, but so far haven’t found anything. I’m pretty sure they don’t know where we are either, so that’s a plus.” Susie nodded. “How’s Daria?” She asked, glancing behind them. Daria and Jim were sitting at chairs in the corner, Jim dozing while Daria just fingered her necklace silently. 

Ellie lowered her voice. “She still isn’t really talking much. I think that thing is what that tape-girl mentioned in those records, and if it is...well. Let’s just hope we can find Glitchtrap soon.” Susie nodded. 

Daria sighed, looking at the grime-covered floor, anxiety stirring within her. She hadn’t been able to think straight for hours now, mind very preoccupied with their current situation. She exhaled, closing her eyes, not to sleep, but just to rest a moment. 

Her eyebrows furrowed as she heard William’s voice. “Missed you again, it seems.” She frowned. “Good riddance,” she thought, huffing. “Let’s not be so bitter, hmm? I’m keeping my temper.” The voice replied. “I’m done talking to you. Get out of my head.” Daria thought, becoming increasingly frustrated. 

“I’ll leave when I want to. Anyway, I...” William continued, but Daria could no longer hear him. Images flashed through her mind, many of or similar to the place where she, Ellie, and Fritz were captive in not long ago. She watched in confusion before William spoke again. “Hello? Can you hear me?” He asked. Daria swallowed. “Unfortunately.” 

William paused, neither saying anything for a moment. Tension built until he broke the silence. “Hmm. Well, then. I’ll be in touch,” he said. Daria waited, but no voice returned. She opened her eyes. Ellie glanced back at her. “You okay, Dar?” Daria shook her head. 

Charlie and Susie turned; Jeremy stood from his chair where he had been practicing his guitar, Elizabeth and Cody paused their conversation, and Jim and Sans finally woke up. Daria swallowed. “I think the connection is getting stronger. He was talking to me, and then I saw a bunch of stuff...rooms and things...from his perspective.” Ellie looked at Charlie for a minute. “That’s not good. At all. What has he been saying?” 

Daria sighed. “He’s just angry that we left again. That’s all.” Charlie nodded. “If...if you can see what he’s doing, does that mean...that he can see what you’re doing?” She asked. Everyone paused for a moment. “I don’t think so. At least, not yet,” Daria said. “But we better take precautions.” 

“Like what?” Jim questioned. “Maybe a blindfold or something. And no one should mention where we are or where we’re going when we leave, in case he can hear us too,” Daria said quietly. Cody walked to her, pulling a long strip of black cloth from his pocket. He handed it to her. “You can use this. Found it in the breaker room, thought it might be useful.” Daria thanked him, tying the thing around her head. 

“Now what?” Sans asked, looking concernedly at the group. Daria thought for a moment. “I’ll keep William occupied if he starts talking to me again. If he doesn’t know I can see what he can yet, maybe we can use it to our advantage.” Charlie nodded. “Okay, but I don’t want you going too deep with this. I’m sure his mind isn’t the best place to be. Check in with me when you talk to him, ok?” Daria nodded. 

“Now we just see if we can find out where they are,” Ellie said, turning back to her laptop. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Hours passed, and most everyone was minding their own business, Jeremy playing guitar, Sans asleep, Susie doodling with Charlie on some old paper they found. Daria, Jim, and Cody were playing a game of marbles in the corner. Ellie was still at her laptop, becoming increasingly more and more frustrated as nothing turned up for anyone’s location. Not Vanny, not William, not Sam... not even Gabriel or Fritz were turning up in the code. 

She sighed, clicking open Sister Location for the fifth time in the past hour. Her eyes widened a little as she saw that the usual opening screen was glitched and filled with words other than what used to be there. 

W-wE KNoW YOu’Re hiDinG 

WE'll FinD yOU sOon e-e-enOuGH 

The words flickered on screen ominously, the threat sending anxious chills through Ellie. She shook her head, frowning. Clicking through the game to Ballora gallery, she opened the room’s file code, going to her. Making sure her message couldn’t be tracked, she typed up some questions to send to Ballora. Perhaps she had some idea of where Vanny was. Where Fritz and Gabriel were. She hit enter, leaning back in her chair to wait for a response. 

She glanced over at Daria, Jim, and Cody. Cody was losing miserably and getting frustrated, nearly throwing his marble at the circle, evoking a laugh from his fellow players. Ellie walked over to them, sitting by Cody. “Can I play?” Jim nodded, still chuckling as he handed one to her. She rolled her marble, landing it neatly near the center. Cody groaned. “Great. She plays well too. I can be everyone’s loser. Even Daria’s beating me and she’s blind!” Ellie laughed for the first time in a while. It felt good. 

Everything was going to be okay. 

It had to be. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

After 3 rounds the laptop made a beeping sound. Ellie turned around to see the screen had lit up and Ballora had responded. She stood up and walked over to look at it. Mumbling, she read it out loud, “Sorry for the wait, they are here and trying to get an answer out of us. They know you’re missing but have no idea where. Vanny keeps mentioning a mind thing, perhaps its what’s wrong with Daria. Make sure she doesn’t say anything.” Ellie sighed, catching the attention of Charlie. “How’s it going” she asked, everyone looked over. Ellie looked at her shoes, “Ballora said that they are with them trying to figure out where we are. She said that we needed to be careful with what Daria said to William.” Charlie sighed. “She’s fine I think.” Ellie walked over to Charlie, Elizabeth, Susie, and Jeremy, “Can I talk to you four for a second?” They all shook their heads and stood up, following her out of the room. Ellie turned to face them. 

“What if Fritz and Gabriel’s minds are being controlled by Glitchtrap.” Charlie raised an eyebrow, “Uh what?” Ellie sighed, “I know it sounds crazy but they put a chip in Daria’s neck to get into her mind, what if they did the same to Fritz and Gabriel? And in affiliation to help wanted there was that phrase, ‘remember Jeremy’ most likely talking about that beta tester that got brain swapped with William.” Susie frowned, “we don’t know that, there are so many Jeremy’s in this game” She said quietly, gesturing to Jeremy. Ellie slumped down, “I know just- help wanted create had so much to do with consciousness swapping at the hands of Glitchtrap and it would make so much sense.” Charlie nodded, “I see where you’re coming from. It would make sense its just how do we know?” Ellie looked up and them back down at the floor, “I don’t know...” 

They sat in silence, thinking, for a while before Jeremy spoke up, “What if Daria isn’t under yet because he’s trying to convince her instead of forcefully doing it.” Charlie nodded her head, “But why would he do that?” Jeremy looked up, “Because changing a person’s morals and ways would get him a more loyal follower than just breaking into and controlling their mind?” Ellie sat up, “That could actually be right... they tried to convince us both to join, where Fritz woke up so early maybe they didn’t have time to get one on me before they had to start their plan.” Charlie grabbed onto Susie’s arm, “Let’s go look up Gabriel and Fritz on the code and we can see if anything changed?” Ellie nodded, walking back in. 

She stopped the moment they entered the doorway, the rest of them almost crashing into her. “Daria... what are doing?” Daria turned to face them, she had taken her blindfold off and was talking to someone who seemed invisible. She seemed surprised but a smile came across her face. “Fazbear Frights” Ellie stepped forward, “What are you doing Dar! Do you want him to find us??” Daria put her hands to her sides, laughing, “Ellie, this voice isn’t bad. I don’t know why I hated it. He said he’d help us, and he is. Can’t you see it?” Ellie raised her arms, “how on earth is William Afton, the man who murdered half the people in this room, helping us Dar.” 

Daria stared Ellie down, “No one can help them Ellie, they already lost and we can’t change that. He can help us though.” Ellie laughed sarcastically, “Are you even listening to yourself!?” Jim and Sans stood walking over to try and calm Daria. Jim reached out to grab her hand. the second he touched her, she ripped her hand away and stepped back. Jim stepped back, startled, “Daria, maybe you should sit down, this isn’t like you-” “Then you don’t know who I am. I can’t believe I didn’t see this sooner.” Jim looked at her in the eyes, “He’s in your head Dar.” You could hear the pain in his voice. Daria grinned back, “No he’s not. This is me. This is all my decision. I think.” Sans shot a look at Charlie, his eye turning a lighter blue. Charlie looked over at Daria, and then back over at Sans and nodded. Sans’ eye lit up as blue magic flew from his hands latching onto Daria. “Let go.” Daria said, surprisingly calm. Sans looked at her, matching the calmness as well, “I can’t yet. We know this isn’t you. You’ll see eventually.” 

Jim was standing back, watching this all unfold as the pit in his stomach grew. “I shouldn’t have let her go alone.” He mumbled under his breath. Cody heard, “don’t worry, she’ll be fine” Jim smiled, staring at the floor again. 

Seeing as Sans had limited magic, Charlie tried to use some of hers to slowly replace Sans’ as everyone sat back down and tried to figure out what to do next. Ellie stared blankly at the hundreds and hundreds of lines at code trying to think of where to even start. She looked over at Daria, she was sitting in the corner of the room staring at the wall, white magic swirled around her keeping her there as Sans and Jim sat a little farther down the wall with her. Charlie stared at the screen, “How do we know where they are? Daria told them and they could be leaving any moment now.” Ellie scrolled up to her past conversation with Ballora in the code. Following the same steps, she sent a message asking if they knew anything. “now we wait.” She replied, slouching back in her chair. 

Daria huffed. She was thinking of what Sans had said, ‘You’ll see.’ It puzzled her and left her mind uneasy. She had no idea where this had come from, she just woke up a little dazed and feeling like a completely new person. “what is wrong with me.” she thought. The voice spoke again, “Nothing. Nothing is wrong with you. You are fixed if anything.” She almost jumped, forgetting the voice existed for a moment. “Did you do something?” the voice sighed, “No daria. This is all you remember?” Daria thought, “no, I don’t remember that’s the thing. I don’t know where this came from, I thought I hated you guys.” The voice laughed, “We need you Daria. You are one of us, trust me.” Daria sighed looking over at Jim and Sans, “ok.” She replied solemnly. She remembered staring at the wall for a few more minutes before commotion started back up again over by the laptop, she had done her job and told the voice where to come. She just laid her head back and fell asleep. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Vanny laughed, “She believed you?” William sighed, “go before they leave.” “Alright, alright I’m going just wow that’s actually kind of pathetic!” She wheezed, cleaning the blade of her knife. William got even more annoyed, “I didn’t convince her. I had to control her mind. The chip is still in her neck.” Vanny raised an eyebrow, “That’s even more pathetic-” William interrupted, “GO. BEFORE. THEY. LEAVE.” Vanny turned and grabbed Sam’s arm as they faced the animatronics. Vanny smiled, “You almost won but hey, looks like you had the same luck as last time you and he encountered huh?” Ballora looked up at her, “I wouldn’t speak so proudly so soon.” Vanny rolled her eyes. Laughing, she walked toward the rest of the cult members in the room, “I’ve already won.” She snickered as she glitched into nothing. 

Funtime Foxy looked up at Ballora, “Where are they. Cody and everyone.” Ballora grinned, “messaged me this morning, they should be leaving.” Funtime Foxy looked forward as she took her idle pose for when they weren’t performing, letting her soul rest inside the robotic prison and think. She rested her head against the back of the inside of the metal torso, pulling her hair to the side. She sighed, looking over at where Funtime Freddy stood on the stage, “Please don’t die.” She mumbled, fumbling with some wires before making herself comfortable and staring at the top of Funtime Foxy’s head. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Charlie looked over at the door as she heard a banging sound, she gasped. “Ellie I think that’s Vanny, are you close?” Susie and Jeremy ran over and closed the door quietly, staring at the security cameras closely. “Yeah I’m just trying to get the program to run, there’s a lot more code and I’m scared it will crash.” Sans looked over, “Where are we going?” Ellie looked at the ground, “Depends, if Vanny finds us first,” She sighed, “no where. But if it loads, I’m thinking treasure planet.” Sans nodded. 

“What are we going to do with Daria.” Jim asked. Ellie looked over at her, “Charlie can you take the ankle restraints off?” Charlie nodded and the magic around Daria’s ankles vanished. Everyone was silent as the faint sounds of voices and footsteps where heard from down the hall. 

Ellie moved her cursor over to the load bar on the screen to see how long the new code had until it finished downloading the updated copy of treasure planet onto the laptop. 13 minutes. Ellie looked up at the group, ”13 minutes. That's too long we won’t make it.” She whispered. Charlie looked at the ground as she bit her lip trying to think of something. 

Jeremy walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, “the robots.” He said. Charlie looked up, “we fight?” Jim laughed, “do we have any other choice?” Sans’ eye lit up, “They deserve the worst time.” 

Charlie laughed as her hand lit up and the three of them turned into robots. Ellie grabbed the laptop and ran over to Daria, pulling her up off the ground. “let’s go hide, you can help me with the code.” Daria sighed, straight faced, she nodded. 

Ellie directed her over to a vent as she pulled the grate off of it and they slipped inside. Looking out, she gave them a thumbs up and Bonnie put the grate back on hiding them inside. After a few minutes passed, they heard the doorknob turn. 

“It’s a shame it took us so long to find you, now we’re even more frustrated with you.” Vanny giggled, stepping in the room, her followers behind her. Marionette raised her hand as it became white and thrust it into the floor, sending Vanny and her followers to the floor as Sans charged toward them yielding gaster blasters to both sides of him. The cult stumbled to their feet again and Vanny gripped her knife, “You’re lose.” She huffed as she ran at them. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Ellie jumped at the sound of yells and banging outside the vents, hurriedly pulling Daria along whilst trying to boot the Treasure Planet code. The metal space was small, barely large enough to crawl in on hands and knees. She glanced at the laptop as they made a turn. Eleven minutes left. 

The metal creaked and groaned under their weight as they noisily hurried to one of the party rooms. Ellie reached for the vent door ahead of them, pushing it open, careful to look around for any of the cult members. Clear. She pulled Daria through, setting the laptop on a nearby table as she closed the door, setting a half-rotted chair at the knob. 

Ellie struggled to type on the computer with her clammy hands, trying to breathe and relax as she sent an urgent update to Ballora. Banging came from the other end of the building, yells intensifying. Eight minutes left. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sans threw a man through the office window with his blue magic, sending shards of glass flying everywhere. He whipped around to block an attack from behind, just barely taking it before another costumed assailant threw a blade towards him. He began to sweat nervously. They were much more aggressive than last time. One human was tough, but a whole herd of them was something else. 

Elizabeth yelped from the other side of the room, kicking away a cult member. Cody at her side began laughing insanely as he swung a metal pipe at the man-causing many of their nearby opponents to back away in sheer confusion and bewilderment. 

Charlie was doing her best to keep more people from entering the room, a task that was becoming impossible as more and more of them glitched in. Jim and Jeremy were at the front, both of which out of breath as they fought. Vanny, Sam, Fritz, and Gabriel stood at the back, watching as more people flooded into the office. The woman eyed the others in the room before disappearing down a hallway. 

Sam stepped in, taking a gun from his belt. Aiming, he shot, hitting Cody in the shoulder. Cody froze before crumbling to the ground, hands twitching. Elizabeth gasped, dropping next to him, shaking him by the shoulders. “Cody, get up, get up!” She begged desperately. Other shots whizzed past her, hitting Sans, Jim, Susie, and Jeremy. They fell to the floor, frantically trying to move as Fritz and Gabriel came next to them, tying their hands behind their backs. 

Elizabeth squeaked, using the swirl chair to block shots coming her way. As a man came to Cody, she reached for a length of splintered wood to fight with before he weakly tugged at her leg. “Get out of here,” he said quietly as he began to pass out, the stun shot taking his consciousness. 

She began to back away to the vent when Charlie appeared at her side, reverting the girl back to her ghost-form. “What are we gonna do?” She said frantically, watching as their friends were dragged away. Charlie snapped her fingers, changing the others out of their robot bodies, put a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder, and teleported them away. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Vanessa walked down the ashen corridors, carefully watching her step to avoid broken glass and scattered nails. She stalked in the darkness quietly, ears perked for any sound. The other two girls-the ones from the last world-weren’t in the office. And she was positive they wouldn’t have left without their friends. 

She strolled further in, peeking around into party rooms and maintenance closets. No sign of them yet. She paused at another gift room, glancing around inside before the sound of creaking vents echoed in the walls behind her. She stepped back into the corridor, ears straining as the sound got louder, continuing to the other side of the building. 

A smile grew on her face behind the mask. She pressed a button on her watch. “Master...I found them.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Ellie wringed her hands nervously as the seconds of the last four minutes ticked down. It seemed like it was taking an eternity. A sudden clanging boomed from the office, making her jump. Seconds later, white light flashed in the room. Ellie watched in apprehension before sighing in relief as Charlie and Elizabeth teleported in the corner. 

“Charlie-where is everyone, are you okay? What-” Ellie began. “How much time is left?!” Charlie interrupted, running to the laptop. “Um-a little over three minutes? Charlie, what’s going on, where is everyone?” Ellie questioned. “It was so fast, we barely had a fair fight, they-they got the others,” Elizabeth answered sadly. 

Ellie’s mouth fell open in shock. She shook her head before swallowing hard, checking the laptop’s time. Just about two minutes now. 

Daria gasped from the other side of the room, restrained hands clutching her head. “Dar?” Ellie questioned concernedly. “She’s coming! She-ow-Vanny's coming!” Ellie looked at Charlie then back at the door, whose only blockage was the decayed chair. “We’ve gotta go,” Charlie said, looking at the laptop. One minute left. 

“C’mon,” Ellie said, prepping the teleportation code. “Guys,” Daria said, standing. “You have to leave me here.” Ellie shook her head. “What?” 

“They’ve been led to us twice because of me. And I can feel him getting stronger...I’ll only put you in danger. Please, you have to go, she’s almost here,” Daria begged. “Dar...we can’t just...” Ellie began. Daria shook her head. “You can save us. I know you can. But not if I’m with you-and you know that. Go.” 

Ellie sighed, nodding. Charlie looked at them both sadly before walking to Daria. “I can give you some of my power to help you fight him out of your mind. It won’t last long, but...it’ll help.” Daria nodded. Charlie put a hand over her chest and white light shone before disappearing. 

Suddenly, the doorknob began to turn, trying to open before the chair blocked it. “Go!” Daria said, running to hold it closed. Ellie frantically typed on the laptop, adrenaline coursing through her as she heard Vanny’s voice on the other side, banging ringing through the room as she tried to force her way in. 

Finally, everything was ready. She gave Daria one last look before hitting enter. The room disappeared, replaced by the wooden walls of Silver’s ship. Charlie looked around. “What do we do now?” 

Ellie looked determinedly at the laptop. “We get help.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria gasped as the chair finally gave way. The door swung open, slamming her to the ground as Vanny loomed over her. “Hello there,” she said, glancing around the room. “Where are the others?” She demanded, analyzing the deserted room. “Gone,” Daria snarled. “You just missed them.” 

Vanny growled. “Then I’ll just have to take what I can get, huh?” She said, grabbing a handful of the girl’s hair, pulling her towards herself. Daria winced as she pulled her closer, glitching away. 

When they reappeared, they were in a similar building to the one Vanny and Sam had brought them to days ago. Daria looked towards the sound of muffled yelling behind her. The others were tied and gagged, struggling against their jailers who were trying to secure them to separate spaces on the wall. Sam surveyed them with arms crossed before he noticed Vanny. “Where are the other three?” he asked. 

“Missed them. Again. But he’ll be much more pleased with this,” Vanny said, motioning to the other restrained youth. Sam nodded. “Want me to take her?” He asked, looking at Daria. Vannessa shook her head. “He said to keep her away from her friends. He has a harder time getting to her with them.” Sam nodded. Daria felt her hands being grabbed roughly, rope winding around her wrists. 

Vanny shoved her down a short hallway into a secluded room with only a desk, wall-screen, and two chairs inside. The woman led her to a chair and left, locking the door. 

For a moment, Daria sat in silence, trying to clear her head before the screen flickered on. “Finally caught you, but you’re missing little Ellie. Where is she?” The figure on it inquired. Daria gritted her teeth. “Don’t know.” 

“Hmm,” William said. There was a pause before the screen glitched in static. Daria looked at it in confusion before pixels glitched in the chair in front of her. She gasped as William appeared in it. “So nice to talk to you face to face.” He said, crossing his legs casually. “How-we trapped you-” Daria stammered. 

“Thanks to that ingenious little device of mine,” William said, tapping the back of his neck. “I can draw some strength from you, temporarily allowing me to come out. Fun, isn’t it?” Daria frowned, scowling. “Don’t be like that sweetheart. Just let me in for a little while. Then all your friends can be here for the party. I know you know where they are.” 

Daria chuckled humorlessly. “Thanks, but I don’t think they’re interested. Besides, they took precautions. I have no idea where they went,” she smirked. William frowned, standing. Daria tensed as he walked nearer. 

“Then, when I finally have you, I’ll have to send you to find them for me, hmm? After all,” he said, crouching close. “You know Ellie best. And she looks like she’s your leader. And when you find her...you’ll find little Charlie too.” 

Daria glared at the man as he straightened. He chuckled. “It’s just a matter of time now,” he said, suddenly clutching his head. “Speaking of time,” he began. “I better go. Phew-Kinda draining being out here. Be seeing you,” he said glitching away. 

Daria watched him leave, sighing. “Please hurry,” she thought desperately. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Charlie grunted as she pushed herself up off the floor. Looking around at the others. “you guys alright?” Ellie did the same, “yeah, you?” Charlie nodded, rubbing her arm as she looked around the rest of the room. “Sliver’s ship,” she mumbled, “why here?” 

Ellie pushed herself to her feet, fixing the hood on her hoodie, she sighed, “because we set up a firewall in the code to block intruders.” Charlie laughed, standing up, “then how’d we get in?” Ellie picked up the bag from the floor, inspecting the laptop for damage, “you’re not an intruder.” Nodding, Charlie turned to face Elizabeth who was still sitting on the floor, eyes wide. Charlie walked over to her and Ellie listened. 

“hey, you alright?” Charlie placed a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder. Elizabeth’s eyes didn’t budge, “what’s going to happen to them.” Charlie looked up at Ellie who frowned. “we don’t know, but we’re going to get them back, and help them. Everything will be ok.” Charlie reassured. Elizabeth quietly sighed and barely nodded. Extending her hand, Charlie pulled Elizabeth up and off of the ground. “Let’s go find Silver.” Ellie said, turning to walk up the stairs. 

Once they reached the top step, they were greeted with the loud and enthusiastic calls of John Silver. “well there ye are! What brings ye back so soon?” Ellie let out a nervous laugh, trying to not get too anxious about how over half their friends where in the possession of a psychopathic serial killer, “well uh, we kind of have a situation...” Silver raised an eyebrow in suspicion, “William, sorta found us? And he kind of took everyone except the three of us hostages... and we don’t know where they are...” Silver gave them a blank stare for a second before nothing, but anger filled his eyes. 

“Not on my watch he di’nt.” He mumbled hastily under his breath as he walked straight through them down the stairs. Elizabeth shot a glance at Charlie who nodded to follow him. Running down the stairs, they followed as Silver lead them to a table, “wait ‘ere.” He waddled down the rest of the hallway and the three of them stood by the table as instructed. After a few short minutes, they looked up at the end of the hallway as he emerged from one of the rooms, plopping down on a seat at the table, the rest of them doing the same. 

“what ‘appened.” he asked, trying to sound calm. Charlie sighed, “Daria’s mind got possessed by William and she gave away where we were to him. We tried to hold them back and fight, but we couldn’t. They’re all with him in who knows where.” Silver rested his elbow on the table and leaned forward to scratch his chin, “well do ye know anywhere he’s gone in ta past?” Charlie looked at the table, “Undertale, the real world, our world, and here. That’s all-” Ellie opened her eyes wider as she cut in, “the office place.” everyone looked at her confused, “it’s like their base, it’s where they took Daria, Fritz, Gabriel and I!” Charlie sat up, surprised, “Well they are probably there, let’s go!” Ellie frowned, “I can’t find the coordinates in the code, they hid it for that very reason actually- keeping us out.” Elizabeth grinned, “they came to our world which has code unlike the real world right?” everyone nodded. “that means that the code had to read those coordinates and let them in, which means that somewhere in the code, that data is probably still there.” Ellie smiled, “Elizabeth you’re a genius!” Elizabeth smiled as Ellie reached for the bag. 

“Alright, I think we can access the code from here, so we don’t have to teleport everywhere.... ah, here it is.” opening a code file for sister location, Ellie started scrolling through the code, searching for any flaws in the code that could have allowed Vanny and William to glitch through, leaving their coordinates behind in the process. After a few minutes, she found something, “oh I think this is something...” Everyone leaned over to look at the screen, displaying a few lines of code that showed it had let something in. At the bottom, displaying an IP address of what it was. “here it is. This is them; it has to be.” Charlie smiled, “Yes!!” 

Silver pushed back against the table as he stood up, “I know I’ve always left ye in ta past, and stayed ‘ere, but yer all alone dis time and, well, I want ta come wit’ya.” Charlie looked up, concerned, “are you sure?” Silver smiled, suddenly showing his anger towards William again, “thousand percent lad.” Ellie nodded, turning her attention back to the computer as she copied the address into another file and hovered over the run button, “ready?” everyone nodded. “alright then” and with hands shaking, she clicked run. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria opened her eyes; she didn’t know where she was at first until she noticed she was in the base thing that Vanny had recently brought her to after their encounter in the real world. She pushed her back off the wall, noticing that she wasn’t tied up anymore as she heard a noise come from a dark corner of the room, startling her at first. 

Vanny let out a disturbing giggle, “you think you’re strong enough to fight this huh. We know that brat Charlie gave you more strength, you would’ve been long dead if it weren’t for her, but guess what?” Vanny laughed even more, “soon it will wear off, and you’ll wish you had died 5 hours ago-” “Vanny!!” she was interrupted by William, who came walking back in, Fritz and Gabriel following him. Daria glared at them; William noticed. He chuckled to himself, “I’m sorry dear it’s just that, I know that glare... I’ve seen it many times before, seems to be a trend among those young ones I... ah, never mind, I’m sure you’re smart enough to figure that out.” 

“I hate you.” Daria scowled at him. William grinned, “Yes, that’s a popular phrase too... oh well, can’t force everyone to like you. Oh! Oh, my I almost forgot, if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m slowly taking over your mind and well,” he gestured to Fritz and Gabriel, “as you can see, it works. I wanted to let you think for yourself for one last time before we turned into someone with the morals of, well.... me!” Daria tried not to look scared, but she couldn’t help the sheer terror building up within her. 

She directed her attention to Fritz and Gabriel, “Fritz, Gabriel, what is wrong with you!” The two payed no attention until William grinned, “oh go on, I’d love to see her try this.” they then directed their attention to Daria, “Nothing.” Daria let out a sighed and laughed, “Oh really. This man murdered you when you were what 7? 9? He took away your future and replaced it with mechanical prisons and here you are trusting him. Believing him. Following him.... Again.” Fritz seemed to look down and think for a moment, only to start laughing afterwards, “I can’t die anymore Daria. I’m immortal, and we owe it, to him.” 

Daria shook her head, glaring at them. William laughed, “Well, that was even better than I thought it would be! Thank you for that, now, if you don’t mind, we have more work to do. Oh, and don’t bother trying to wake up your friends, they’ll be out for another hour or two.” Daria looked around her, she hadn’t realized she was in some sort of prison cell, surrounding her, all of her friends. She stood up, walking around the medium sized space to the cage dividing the group. She could feel her face go red as she saw the state of all of them. 

Sans had cracks covering various bones, Susie had a cuts on her face and arms, Jeremy had a gash through his eye and cheek, Cody had a cut on his hand and blood in his hair, leading Daria to think there was a cut on his head as well. She turned to face the other direction in her cell where she found Jim. She put a hand over her mouth and walked over to him. It was obvious he had taken more damage than everyone else, probably because he had a tendency to look for someone to fight instead of wait. He had a huge gash through his shoulder, a cut on his nose, and what was clearly a broken ankle. 

She kneeled next to him and inspected the gash on him shoulder. It was severely bruised and still bleeding. Tearing off the strip of his jacket that had been ripped off from the cut, she cleaned the blood off his shoulder and nose and then tied it around his arm to try and help the small bleeding stop. He would probably need stitched for both cuts. 

She then brought over a box that was in the corner and removed a jacket she had thrown on before leaving for sister location and placed it on the top of it, trying to make it act like a pillow to help his ankle. She tried not to grow faint as she inspected the ankle, it was swollen but she could clearly see where there was a crack in the bone. 

After setting up her attempt to care for Jim, she sat beside him and curled up in his arms, thinking about how she would help care for the others, if she wasn’t possessed by then. That’s when her panic set it. Her stomach sank as she tried to think of what she would do once she had no control over her mind. She fought the ideas, thinking that it probably wouldn’t help her case if she thought about giving in. She hadn’t realized how long she had been thinking until Jim suddenly moved his other shoulder, wincing in pain. She sat up, smiling, tears forming in her eyes from the mental exhaustion that she had been putting up with. 

Jim seemed happy too as his face lit up. He hadn’t even acknowledged his injuries before he looked at Daria and pulled her forehead close to his, until they were touching, “Are you ok??” he asked. Daria pulled back, “Am I ok??? You’re the one that can’t even move!” Jim laughed looking down, “I’d hug ya but... ya know... can’t move...” Daria giggled, “It’s alright” Jim looked around, “Where even are we?” 

Daria looked down, “Only thing that matters is that I’m sure we’ll be ok. The others won’t be awake for a while, I recommend using this time to rest heh” Jim looked at Daria’s eyes, she looked worried and Jim could tell she was getting anxious. He smiled as he lifted the arm that wasn’t cut open and picked up her hand. “We’ll be ok” he repeated. Daria could already feel the anxiety melting away as he held her hand. She looked up and met his eyes as he pulled her in and kissed her forehead. She looked down at his hand holding onto hers and fiddled with the bracelet he had given her. 

Jim noticed, he grinned as he realized how much joy just looking at her brought him. He let go of her hand, moving it to her face and raising it so he could look her in the eyes, he could see the fear she was experiencing, he smiled at her, sighing, as he kissed her. Letting her head rest on his not-damaged shoulder as she dozed off the sleep. He loved her. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Ellie gasped as she and her friends landed on the floor of a darkened corridor, landing from a higher distance than she anticipated. Silver’s mechanical eye whirred as it scanned the place, its usual golden glow dimming to a threatening scarlet. “This is it?” He asked quietly. Ellie peered around a corner, recognizing the room she had been taken to days prior, its large screen softly emitting a hum as it shone with static. She nodded. “Yup.” 

“What now?” Elizabeth whispered. “Uh...” Ellie started, glancing down the other side of the hallway. “I didn’t really have a plan...” Charlie looked down the corridor and began creeping down it, making a right turn at its end. The three looked at each other and hurriedly followed her, trying not to make a sound. 

Charlie led them through a dark maze of narrow walls before they finally found a door. Ellie put her ear to it, hearing nothing. Cautiously, she slowly opened it, looking intently in the room. No Vanny, no Sam, no William...so far so good. She pushed the door all the way open, and they slipped inside, closing it behind them. 

They crept along the wall, barely able to see in the little light the room provided before a voice called out. “Hello?” It asked dryly. “Jeremy?” Ellie responded softly. “It’s me, we’re here!” Jeremy said back in a hushed whisper. They continued near the wall until they felt cold metal jutting out from it. It was a cage of sorts, not unlike the one they had been trapped in on Silver’s ship months ago. 

Ellie felt her way around to its door. Locked, of course. A cool hand reached through the bars and brushed her arm. Ellie jumped slightly before Jeremy spoke again. “What are you doing here?” He whispered. “We’re gonna rescue you,” Ellie responded, feeling the lock, trying to identify what kind of key would fit into it. “You have to leave, Vanny’s gonna be here soon with those things that turned Gabe and Fritz into psychos, you have to hurry,” he replied in a worried tone. 

Silver’s mechanical arm pulled a small light from itself, gently illuminating the room in a soft golden glow. Ellie could finally see Jeremy clearly. One of his eyes had a brilliantly shining purple bruise, a cut on his lip and tired eyelids evidence of what transpired in her absence. “How did-how did this happen; we haven’t been gone long-” Charlie said in a panic. 

“I think time passes a little quicker here, it’s been like six or seven hours,” the boy replied, looking at his watch. Ellie looked past him where Sans, Cody, and Susie were slumped, asleep in a corner. Daria and Jim were on the other side, also in slumber. An echoey clang came from far down the hallway, past the closed door. “You’ve got to go, now,” Jeremy said urgently. 

“And leave you here? Yeah, right,” Silver grumbled, glancing at the door. “I’m serious-look, you can save us, and I know what you need to do, but promise me you’ll leave after I tell you-no trying to get us out now, they’ll know you were able to get in here.” Ellie swallowed before nodding. “Okay.” 

“I know a lot about robots, and when Gabe and Fritz were here guarding us earlier, I was able to take a good look at those headbands. There’s a code in them that’s been able to do all this stuff, and it's in the game file for the first location. You can find it, but you’ll need tools to extract it and de-program it. That scientist from Undertale-Alphys?-I think she can help you build a weapon for the ‘antidote’ or whatever,” He spoke hurriedly, barely giving Ellie enough time to process what he said. 

“Okay, okay,” she said, going over it all in her mind. “Will it work on that thing Dar’s got?” Jeremy glanced back at the sleeping girl and gulped. “I don’t think so. It’s the glitchtrap code-that's something you’ll have to figure out on your own, I don’t know anything about it-” He said, interrupted by footsteps approaching on the metal floor outside. Jeremy looked back at them, eyes urgently telling them to leave. 

Ellie pulled out the laptop and typed the Undertale code onto it and hit enter, watching the dark room disappear to give way to fast-falling snow. 

She put an arm up to block the oncoming flurry, squinting her eyes as she peered through the white blocking her vision. Charlie stomped over to her through the snow; arms folded around herself. “What now?” She asked. “We’ve gotta get to Alphys,” Ellie responded, pulling on her hood. Elizabeth and Silver walked next to them. “Let’s go.” 

For a few minutes they pushed against the wind, passing familiar landmarks, not yet to Snowdin Town. Having only worn a t-shirt and jeans, Elizabeth stayed close to Silver, keeping warm near his coat. “We close?” Silver called up to Ellie, glancing down at the shivering girl. “Almost!” She hollered back, making a turn. She was pretty sure Grillby’s was now on her left, but she could barely see through the swirling snow. She sighed in relief as they finally reached the Riverman, who thankfully, was stopped at the ice-ridden town. 

They climbed aboard and the hooded figure up front slowly turned to look at them, his face shrouded in shadow. “Where to, hmm?” He asked in a low sing-song voice. “H-Hotlands,” Ellie replied, teeth beginning to chatter. “Tra la la...the water is very dry today,” the man said as the boat stood, slowly wading through the river. 

“Is that a good thing?” Ellie asked, arms wrapped around the laptop as the temperature slowly but surely became a little warmer. “Tra la la...that depends. If I said the waters were wild today, that could be good or bad luck. But I said the water was dry, you see, not wild.” Charlie shot Ellie a look, glancing back and forth from the hooded man, mouthing “What is wrong with this guy?” 

“So... does dry water mean good or bad luck?” Ellie inquired. “Hmm...it means that you have no luck at all, not at all, your fate is in your hands...tra la la...” the Riverman said, seemingly finishing the conversation-if one could call it that. The boat skimmed faster over the water, passing Wetlands in a blur before they made an abrupt stop outside red rock and bubbling lava. 

“Thanks,” Ellie said, stepping out of the vessel. Her friends followed as the Riverman looked at her. “Anytime, my dear, anytime. Tra la la...” he said as the boat turned to head back to Snowdin. “Funny fellow,” Silver muttered as they went up the stairs and made a turn to head to a pearly white lab standing tall in the distance. 

They walked to its door and Ellie knocked, keeping a firm grasp on the laptop tucked under her arm. A clawed tapping of feet walking grew louder as it approached them and a yellow-scaled monster opened the door, glasses nearly sliding off her face as she looked at who had come knocking. Undyne appeared by her side, only in a black tank top and jeans. She grinned looking at them. 

“Hey Alphys...Undyne...” Ellie said with a small smile. “Ellie? W-what are you doing h-here?” The scientist inquired, surprised. She sighed, looking back at Charlie, Elizabeth, and Silver. “Alphys...we need your help.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria wearily opened her eyes with a groan, head throbbing. She put a hand to her neck to feel the cold metallic chip there, almost mocking her helplessness. Footsteps could be heard coming closer and she looked up to see Vanny and Sam coming through the door of the hall, and she began to sit up, gently shaking Jim awake. Cody, Susie and Sans stirred as Vanny approached. The woman kicked the bars, causing the three to jolt awake with a start, and for a moment, Susie breathed heavily in a panic. Vanessa smirked as she crossed her arms, standing in front of them on the other side of the metal wall. “You punks about ready?” She asked sweetly as Sam joined her. 

They simply glared silently, scowls on their face while Daria looked away, her headache getting stronger. Vanny cocked her head, looking at the girl. “Feeling a little tipsy?” She asked, leering. Daria still faced away from the woman, feeling an uncomfortable pressure build just at the base of her skull. She could barely hear Jim and Sans, their voices sounding muffled in her increasingly cloudy mind. 

“Dar?” They asked, turning to her. She didn’t respond, instead raising her hands to her head, clutching it tightly, trying to ignore the smothering presence creeping into her thoughts. She opened her eyes, but all she saw was darkness, all she heard...was silence. Suddenly, she felt rather tired, almost weightless. Despite only seeing black now, she felt a sensation, much like that of sleep. Eventually, her consciousness was gone. 

“Dar? Daria!” Jim said, shaking her by the shoulder with his good hand. She sat frozen, knees drawn to her chest, eyes wide open while she clutched her head tightly. Her knuckles whitened as her mouth fell slightly open, agape. Vanny began to giggle with glee while Sam cracked a small smile. “Finally!” She cheered with a clap. 

“What’s wrong with her?!” Susie demanded. “She’s succumbed to him. She can no longer fight,” Sam said solemnly. Daria suddenly stood, eyes empty with no emotion, face vacant of expression. Jim tried to take hold of her sleeve, but she pulled away, moving to stand by the door. Vanny opened it, giving the other youth in the prison a threatening glare as Daria stepped through, closing it behind her. 

Susie stood, clutching her bruised side. “Stop, let her go, please, she can’t offer you anything!” Vanny simply shook her head, smiling as she tapped her watch. “On the contrary,” she said, looking into it. “She can. Master-we're ready!” The device blared with static as the air beside her became glitched and pixelated. William materialized there, causing a reflexive shudder to go down Jeremy and Susie’s backs. Cody, Sans, and Jim were glaring daggers at the man as he peered around the room, eyes landing on Daria. 

“Finally decided to help us princess?” He asked, lips turning upwards into a sickly smile. Daria simply nodded, turning to face him, a slight frown on her face. “Wonderful!” The man said, clapping his hands as he motioned at the door. “Let’s have your first task be to convince these darling friends of yours to join us,” he spoke happily as the door opened, Fritz and Gabriel appearing from its other side. They each held a small metal tray with similar headbands on them. 

“Sadly, not all our friends are here, but we’ll have to invite them to our little party, won’t we? But let’s start with who we’ve got,” William said, smiling. “Daria dear, would you do the honors?” He said, gesturing to the devices Gabriel and Fritz held. She reached out, taking one in one hand and two in the other. There were only three. 

“I’ve discovered that these curious little things only work on ghost children, but we’ll make do. The rest of you will get the same chip our little darling has here, but in good time, we’re still making them. They’re tricky, you know,” William said, laying a finger to the side of his nose with a wink. Vanny and Sam walked to the prison, pulling Susie, Jeremy, and Cody out of it. Vanessa held Susie tightly, forcing her to her knees while Sam struggled with the boys. 

Jeremy, still weak from earlier felt his legs give way, falling to sit kneeling, hands braced on the cold floor. Cody was fighting the most, trying to twist out of the man’s grip before Sam hit him hard in the nose. Cody groaned as warm blood trickled down his face. Jeremy looked at him, an almost resolved look in his eyes as he shook his head. Cody breathed through his mouth as blood began to coat his tongue, the bitter taste of iron trickling down his throat. He was a fighter, always was, just like Fritz and Charlie. But now...it all seemed somewhat hopeless. What else was there to do? 

Daria came to stand in front of Susie, holding the band in front of her. Susie’s eyes shut tightly as Daria slid it over her head. Next was Cody, and then...Jeremy. She paused, gazing at his eyes, and he looked back, pleading almost. She raised the band to his head, and he sighed as he felt the metal slide over it before darkness consumed him. 

…... 

“Very good Daria,” William said with a proud smile. She turned to face him, expression empty of emotion while Sans and Jim shook their heads in shock. “Now... I want you to find Ellie. Search anyplace you think she could be. And when you find her...bring her to me.” Daria nodded as Vanny handed her a watch like hers. She strapped it around her wrist and turned it on, looking at its various buttons. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Alphys examined FNAF 1’s game code, humming in curiousness as she clicked through its files. Undyne pushed a stack of papers and empty noodle cups out of the way as she sat on the table while Ellie anxiously looked over the scientist’s shoulder. “Anything?” She asked quietly. Alphys adjusted her glasses. “Y-yeah, lots. I t-think I found what you’re l-looking for, but it's going to take a while to extract t-the files and longer to d-download it.” Ellie nodded, sighing as she looked back at where Silver, Charlie, and Elizabeth were sitting in folding chairs near the wall. 

“How long?” She asked, crossing her arms. “Hours...maybe ten?” Alphys replied, turning in her chair. Ellie frowned a little in anxiousness. “What do we do in the meantime?” She questioned. “W-well, this anti-code has to b-be transmitted to the original one, and the easiest way to do that is with a p-projector. We should m-make one or two while this d-downloads,” the scientist replied, opening up a planning software on her computer. 

She clicked around on it for a minute before she finished a rough design of a device-it was not unlike portable bar-code scanners Ellie saw at school and grocery stores. “H-how this w-works is that the screen right h-here,” Alphys said, motioning to the front of the projector, “projects the code onto the chip of the h-headband. You’ll have to m-make sure you hit the r-right place, there l-likely is an indicator, like a l-light or something,” she said. Ellie remembered the pink light on Gabriel and Fritz’s headbands, small circles near their right temples. “Yeah, I think I know where,” she said with a nod. 

“G-great. Let’s g-get started,” Alphys said, standing. “Do you know h-how to build this s-stuff?” She asked, looking at Ellie. “Um... not really,” she said sheepishly. “Maybe Silver though.” The cyborg glanced up at the sound of his name and Ellie waved him over. “We need to build these,” she said, pointing at the designs on the huge computer. Silver nodded, crossing his arms. “Shouldn’t be too hard,” he said, his mechanical eye whirring as it zoomed in and out, focusing on the plans. 

“A-awesome!” Alphys said with a goofy grin. She and Silver walked to a semi-cleared table and got to work while Alphys excitedly questioned the man about his cyborg parts, going on about Mettaton and her other robot prototypes. Undyne hopped off the counter and looked at Ellie. “Listen, I don’t know anything about this nerdy robot stuff, but I can help you bust those punks outta jail,” she offered. “Would you?” Ellie inquired. “We need all the help we can get.” Undyne flashed a sharp-toothed grin. “Then count me in!” She said with a whoop. 

Ellie smiled, glancing over at Elizabeth and Charlie, who returned the gesture. They were going to save their friends. And they were going to take down William. She was sure of it. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Jim stared up at Daria, eyes wide open in disbelief. He knew it wasn’t her doing any of this. She had no choice, he still knew she was a good person, she just couldn’t fight it. Jim felt the rage build up inside of him as he started breathing in heavier, deeper, gulps of air. He slowly tried to stand. Leaning on one leg, slowly letting his other hand fall to his side as he glared up at William. 

The look on William’s face proved that he was rather amused by Jim’s effort. He laughed as he nodded his head at something behind him. Jim, confused, tried to turn around right as he saw Vanny walking up, glitching through the bars, she kicked his leg making him fall to the ground as he hit his head on the hard floor and blacked out. 

Vanny giggled. “oops...” She said, a smug smile on her face as William chuckled. Sans sat up a little more, eye turning a slight blue as anger flushed over his face, “you think this is real funny don’t you.” William squinted his eyes as he grinned, “I think it’s rather hilarious actually... if you have a problem, just wait until you’re under, then you’ll be just perfectly fine with everything. I promise.” Sans frowned as he glanced over at Jim, lying motionless on the floor. He looked over at Daria, for a second, he thought he saw her wince at the sight. Like she was still fighting it. 

Sans looked around the room, trying to find some way to get out or stall. It was him and Jim now and quite frankly, he didn’t think Jim would be able to help out anytime soon. After a while, he realized that there wasn’t really anything that he could do. He started to grow anxious, he wasn’t scared for himself, all he could think of was what would happen to Papyrus if he died. He tried to move, putting pressure on his arm as he did so. He grunted in pain as he retracted his arm, there was a fracture in the bone. He definitely wasn’t going anywhere. 

“Oh please keep trying to move, by injuring yourself further you’re making our job easier... not to mention how amusingly weak you are, I’m surprised you haven’t died yet.” Sans glared up to see Sam had stayed in the room. “save your breath coward. At least I can survive on my own without having a psychopathic middle aged man with a hobby of killing kids look after me. But hey, neither of us are dead yet.” Sam smiled, “yet.” He turned and left the room. Sans rested up against the wall as he listened to William’s faded voice echo through the hall. He wouldn’t let them win. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria felt so exhausted. She had spent that past hour feeling like she was trapped in her own mind. Like she was locked in her head while someone else controlled her every move. She had been trying to fight it. William walked up to her, smiling, “You keep trying, I’m sure you’ll get there.” Daria had never wanted to slap someone in the face so bad in her entire life, and the only time she would’ve dared to, she couldn’t. He had hurt her, sure. But he had hurt Jim, and in Daria’s eyes, that was even worse. 

“Alright, now I finally have a little army, hurray. Glad you could join us. Now,” William started as he faced the group full of blank stares, “I have a job for you all but first, we need to get rid of some pesky little teens now, shall we?” Vanny smiled as she pulled out a knife and drug her finger on the edge, “of course...” Willaim nodded as he grinned, “Susie, Gabriel, and Fritz, you’re going to start on this,” He walked over to a large screen full of code as he scrolled through, revealing a huge page full of code taken from various universes, finally revealing what he had been doing. 

“It’s almost complete, but I want more.... places, now thankfully some friends of mine decided to watch a movie in a certain underground civilization... all the code for treasure planet is happily copied in the code of Undertale and now all I have to do is go there and copy it. I want you three to find it.” The three of them nodded. 

“Now in the mean time, Daria, Jeremy, and Cody, I’m sending you to Undertale. I know they’ve been here, it’s a laptop from a FNaF game, I have the code and can track it. I also know that they are there. I want them out of my way. Bring them all back here. Everyone affiliated, even any new friends they’ve picked up along the way.” They nodded. 

“Daria, I’m going to let you control yourself. Get them.” William walked over, his face inches away from hers as he lowered his voice and glared into her eyes, “And if you don’t, I will kill Jim right in front of your very eyes the worst way I can imagine. Understood?” Daria nodded, outside she had her composure but inside she could feel herself shaking as a tear formed in her eye and rolled down her red face. “good. Now go.” 

Daria barely had time to react before Vanny grabbed onto the three of them and they glitched into nothing, reappearing as they crunched into the snow. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Charlie laughed as Mettaton finished his stand up comedy attempt in which Charlie had picked up on him trying to mimic sans, Charlie would be lying if she said it wasn’t pretty funny. Sans had a very distinct personality that made him hard to forget, which made the skit even funnier. 

Her smile faded however, as she thought about how injured he was. She knew how low his HP was, he had told her one night when they had talked in front of Charlie’s bedroom door when they were the only ones that wanted to go to bed. She missed those days. She never realized how close she was to the skeleton until that moment. She hoped he was ok, the thought of losing him caused a pit to form in her stomach. 

She was snapped back into reality as Ellie was waving a hand in front of her face, “Charlie? Hellooooo??” She sat up, “Ah sorry, uh-” She quickly noticed the worried looks on everyone’s faces, “-tired, I guess” Ellie raised an eyebrow, “we all just slept before this! You sure you’re ok?” Charlie smiled, “Yeah, I’m fine.” Mettaton looked over at the brown haired girl, “well, if I knew any better I’d say she was completely speechless by the absolutely fabulous performance I delivered!” Charlie giggled, “It was indeed fabulous! You do a really good impression of Sans!” Mettaton looked over at her, eyes beaming, “Looks like someone did catch my reference!! so you do know Sans!! Ah that is just fabulous, I mean, I knew that you had to at least know him but, not enough to actually get my joke!” Charlie blushed, “Yeah... yeah I know sans” Mettaton squinted his eyes as he turned his head, “why the strange look darling??” 

Charlie looked up, “what do you mean?” Mettaton laughed, “Darling, I know facial expressions and that, was because something was bothering you... either that or-” Charlie raised an eyebrow, laughing as she interrupted, “Yeah, I’m just dandy. Hey how much time is left on that download Alphys?” Alphys looked over at Charlie, “5 h-hours...” Charlie sighed as Mettaton proceeded to finish, “not helping your case cutting me off like that darling, I wasn’t suspecting anything, but now you’re in for an interrogation” Charlie nodded her head and put a hand over her face to hide her red skin, Elizabeth laughed, “I don’t think she ever gets this type of attention, what’s wrong charlie?” 

Charlie sat up, “There are so many more important things that we could be discussing at the moment, like how I don’t know, all our friends could be dead right now?” Ellie frowned, “there’s nothing that we can do at the moment,” She grinned a little, glancing back at Mettaton, “I think she deserves all the questions you got!” Charlie sighed. 

Mettaton cleared his throat, “Alright then... Darling, why did you interrupt me before I could ask if you were bothered by something or something was making you happy?” Charlie smiled in relief, “I thought you were going to ask.... something else... Yeah I'm just happy, that we’re all safe.” Mettaton smirked, “But we were talking about Sans darling.” 

Charlie rolled her eyes, “And?” Mettaton uncrossed his leg and threw his hands in the air, “and you made that face! You know, for such an ordinary topic in your eyes you sure are being very secretive, do I sense maybe... a crush??” Ellie and Elizabeth laughed, “I mean, you do talk to him a lot! I could see it!” Ellie claimed. Charlie blushed the most she had probably her entire life, “no I- look. He’s my friend yeah but I don’t think that would ever happen...” Elizabeth turned from a joking manner to a little more serious, “wait, but if it did...?” Charlie glanced up at her, “it won’t.” Mettaton cheered, “Oh my!! You actually like Sans don’t you!!” 

Charlie looked up quickly, “I never said that-” Mettaton interrupted, “But you never denied it!” Charlie tried to cut it but Mettaton wouldn’t let her, “Do you deny it?” Everyone was silent as Charlie stuttered, “i- I mean- he's one of my friends” Mettaton grinned, “I hear this Daria was friends with this Jim too” 

Charlie sighed, looking down at her lap. Ellie scooted over, “We won’t tell, or judge” Everyone nodded as Charlie glanced up grinning a little as she laughed, “Mettaton, did you just guess or something? An algorithm?” Mettaton smiled as he shrugged, “I have my ways darling!” Charlie nodded as she laughed at herself again, “Oh gosh, I- heck why not, uh, yeah. I may or may not have a little crush on sans... but you can’t tell him! Or anyone else, Fritz would never let it go!” Alphys sighed, “cute!!!!” Charlie smiled back at her as Undyne agreed with the yellow dinosaur. 

“now that you have your answer, can we do something productive?” Ellie laughed as she walked over to the laptop with Alphys to see if there was anything they could do. Charlie walked over with Elizabeth, bumping into her arm as she laughed, “we need to get you and Cody together sometime ay?” Elizabeth laughed, “oh what so now all the sudden everyone has to be in a relationship or have a crush? Cody is like a brother to me and you know that!” Charlie smiled, “Does seem to be happening now does it huh... well!” They walked over and joined the others. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sam lead the three of the missing children over to various pieces of technology that they had scattered around the room as William surprisingly let Sam take over. “I’m going to teach Fritz how to do the coding. It's easiest done by one person. William, if you wouldn’t mind teaching these two how to do the devices for Sans and Jim and how to install them properly? They could be more useful there.” William nodded, “most certainly. You already know how to do this, follow me.” 

Sam watched as they left the room before turning to the computer and showing Fritz where all the certain codes were and how to decode the numbers and phrases. It didn’t take long before Fritz had gotten the idea of it and the two started their quest. 

William lead the other two down the long hallway to where they were holding the devices that had been previously installed on themselves. William walked over to a table and picked up what almost looked like a small SD card for a cell phone. He smiled, “this is a part of me. I have figured out a way, through code, to transfer some of my mind into this chip. Enough that I can control you but also function normally myself. We will be implanting this on the neck.” he walked over and handed the two a paper, “read this. I’ll be back” Susie and Gabriel stared at it, quietly reading the paper to themselves, not saying a word. It was a paper that William had wrote containing various information on how the chip worked. 

Once he returned to the room, Gabriel broke the silence, “why did we need to read this?” William didn’t turn to face them, he instead continued tampering with the chip as he responded, “well I figured if you’re going to be working with them I would prefer you know what they are and how they work. I don’t like people who know nothing about my creations handling them. To say the least, it upsets me.” Gabriel didn’t say a word, satisfied with the answer. 

After a few moments of nothing but silence, William turned around, smiling as he stared down at the chip in his hand, now equipped with a needle sticking out from the back. He walked over and handed it to Susie, “you are doing Jim. Simply insert the needle anywhere by where you can visibly see a blood vein. It would take ages to take control without the help of blood veins so it is absolutely crucial that you do not skip that step.” 

He then pulled out something that looked more like the headbands he had used on the ghost children expect this one had more bumps that would press into your skull. William handed it to Gabriel, “This is for Sans. Just slide it over his head, any which way you want. I don’t exactly mind too much about him. He’s weak and to be completely honest I’m surprised he isn’t already dead. That being said, if he dies, then at least you’re new. Otherwise, we’d have ourselves a problem.” Gabriel nodded. 

“Understood? Both of you?” he finished. Both of them nodded their heads, blank stares continuing on. “Good. Now place them on this table, we will do it once the code is pieced together.” 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria stumbled into the freezing powder as Vanny shoved them forward. “I’ve got my own orders, so you’re on your own-do your job, or else,” the woman said, fingering her knife. Daria glared at her; jaw clenched. 

“Oh, and one more thing,” Vanny said, grabbing the girl by the arm. Daria felt something hook onto the chip at her heck with a click. “A microphone...just so you don’t get any ideas. We’ll be listening,” she said with a smirk. “See ya,” she added with a wave, glitching out of view. 

Jeremy and Cody looked expectantly at Daria, expressions otherwise blank as the wind and snow blew harder. “Well-come on, then,” she said, folding her arms around herself for some warmth as she stomped through the fresh powder. 

“Where will we look?” Jeremy asked monotonously. Daria narrowed her eyes against the wind. “I doubt they’re in Snowdin. That’s too obvious. Maybe Waterfall.” The boys nodded. “Let’s go, then.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Ellie checked her watch, looking at the timer she set on it. According to the dim number showing on its face, there was only about an hour left until Alphys and Silver would be done with their device. “How’s it going?” She asked, hopping off the table. 

“A-Almost done, but w-we actually n-need something from Wetland. Gerson should h-have some ‘cloudy g-glasses'? W-We need the lens,” the scientist said, screwing a panel onto the device. “I can get it. Charlie, you wanna come?” Ellie asked. The girl nodded, standing from where she and Elizabeth had been playing chopsticks. 

“Hey, I’ll be your escort. In case any of those monster punks on the way get any ideas,” Undyne said with a cool smile, following after them. The three waved as they started out of the labs. 

…. 

After a fair bit of walking and a number of Temmie avoidances, they finally approached Gerson’s shop. The turtle peeked his head from the counter at the sound of their advance and waved, giving a hearty chuckle. 

“Well, hey there!” He said in a raspy voice. “Heya you old geezer!” Undyne chortled. “How have ya been?” The monster waved a hand, shaking his head. “Just fine, wasting my time at this li’l thing. Speakin’ of which, you youngin’s gonna buy anything?” 

Ellie nodded. “Yeah, some cloudy glasses actually.” The turtle gave a small-toothed grin and disappeared under the counter, reappearing with a worn pair of spectacles, half snapped on one end. “That’ll be five G,” he said, sliding the glasses towards them. “Oh-uh...” Ellie began, realizing she carried no currency for the Underground. 

“I gotcha,” Undyne said, forcefully slamming a couple of gold coins on the counter to the merchant. “Thank ye,” the turtle replied, pulling the money to a leather sack held in his other claw. “Thanks,” Ellie said, glancing at Undyne as she collected the spectacles. “No prob,” the Captain replied with a grin. “Let’s go!” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Daria glanced up from the rock she was sitting on to where Cody and Jeremy were taking a break near the creek. They had been in waterfall for nearly half an hour now and the boys wanted to wash the mud off their shoes. 

Daria frowned, looking down at the small knives she held. Vanny had given her a few before she left along with a small belt to hold them in. Not that she wanted to use them. She ran the blades against each other, each stroke making small sounds that tickled her ears. 

“What am I going to do when I find them?” She thought to herself. She in no way was interested in doing any harm to her friends and she definitely didn’t want to drag them to that monster who was keeping a dangerously watchful eye on Jim and Sans. She couldn’t communicate to them without him hearing either. She sighed. 

A knife shone as the light caught it, showing her reflection in the cool steel. Her eyes widened. She had an idea. Taking one blade in her right hand and another in her left, she began to carve a message into the metal. It was a lot more difficult than she anticipated and the knife slipped a few times, nearly nicking her fingers. She was careful to keep an eye on the boys, making sure they weren’t looking her way. They were on his side now, after all. 

Finally, after having to re-carve the words several times over, she was done. In sloppy letters, it wrote- “Mics-using Jim-Want you”. She smiled, tucking the blade into her belt just as Cody and Jeremy approached. “Let’s go,” Jeremy said flatly. Daria nodded, standing. Just then, a woman’s laugh echoed from down the path, followed by an enthusiastic “Yeah”. It sounded a lot like Undyne...and Ellie? 

The boys looked at each other before taking off through the tall grass. Daria sprinted after them, determined to reach her friend before they did. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

As the trio turned and started heading back down the path, the thumping of rapidly approaching feet made Undyne turn. “Hey-aren’t those people your friends?” She asked, tapping Charlie’s shoulder. She turned around and began to smile before spotting the headbands strapped tightly around their skulls. “RUN!” She yelled as the boys drew their blades. 

Ellie had barely gotten a glance at them before Undyne ushered her forward. The monster conjured a glowing spear before Ellie grabbed her hand, frantically shaking her head. “It’s not their fault, they don’t know what they’re doing! We can’t hurt them!” She called in between breaths. Undyne’s yellow eye narrowed as she nodded, hurrying them through the tunnels and to the Hotlands bridge. 

Daria’s legs began to burn from the intense sprinting, but adrenaline fueled her pace as she surpassed the boys. They were beginning to tire and fall behind. 

Ellie pushed herself forward, helping an increasingly fatigued Undyne as they ran over the hot rock. Lava bubbled and popped below them as they hurried to the lab. As they made their way to its entrance. Charlie pushed Ellie and Undyne toward it. “Get help, I’ll hold them off,” she urged, already turning to face their pursuers. Ellie nodded, helping the monster captain inside. 

Ellie kicked open the door and Undyne sighed in relief at the cool AC blowing from the vent above. “Ellie, there you are! Where’s Charlie?” Elizabeth said, hurrying to help Undyne to the water cooler. “Outside-they found us, she’s fighting them right now, w-we've gotta help her,” Ellie panted. Silver looked up from where he was assembling machinery with Alphys. 

“Who’s outside?” He questioned. “Cody...and Jeremy. And Daria,” Ellie said, regaining her breath. The cyborg nodded, making his way around the table to the entrance. A bang came from the other side of the metal door and Alphys squeaked in surprise. “Here,” Ellie said, handing the glasses over. The scientist nodded hurriedly, holding the spectacles as she slid a gun-shaped item with a circular dome at its front to the girl. 

“H-Here, use this. It s-should stun them safely,” she said, popping the lens from the glasses. “How long will the stun last?” Ellie asked, taking the weapon. “An h-hour or so,” the monster replied before another bang echoed through the lab. Ellie nodded, rushing to the door as Silver opened it. They stepped outside. 

Charlie was mostly blocking attacks from Cody and Jeremy, trying not to harm them as she dodged their blows. Daria stood at the back, eyeing the fight in concentration. “Guys!” Charlie hollered back at Ellie and Silver. Ellie held up the stunner, taking careful aim as she shot. 

A light beam erupted from the nozzle, barely grazing Cody’s shoulder. He let out a small cry of pain as his arm went limp, growling almost as he glared daggers at Ellie. Daria finally leapt into the fray, drawing her sword as she advanced towards Charlie, who had her back turned to face Jeremy, unaware of the girl’s approach. Silver stepped in front of Daria, drawing his own cutlass as he stood firmly behind Charlie. 

“What’s gotten inta ye?” He demanded, blocking a strike from the girl. Daria gritted her teeth, remembering the microphone likely listening to their exchange. She opted to stay silent as she made a lunge attack. Silver parried it, trying to stay as defensive as possible as to not harm the girl. It was proving to be difficult. “Dar! Daria, talk ta me lass, what’ happenin’?!” He pleaded, shoving away an attack with a little more force than he meant to. 

Daria stumbled backwards, staying quiet as she pulled a blade from her belt, hurtling it at the cyborg. It narrowly missed his face, flying just barely past him. Just then, light flashed brightly beside them as Jeremy crumpled to the ground, motionless as Ellie stood, gripping the stun-gun white-faced. Daria ran to him, motioning for Cody to come. Checking his neck pulse whilst flipping open the call menu on her watch, Daria spoke. “Jeremy’s down. Get us out of here,” she said flatly, looking up at Ellie as they began to pixelate. 

Charlie, realizing what was happening, tried to stop them. But by then, they were gone. Ellie shakily lowered her hands, knuckles white from how tightly she held her weapon. “This is crazy. We’ve gotta stop all this before they get us too,” she said, slowly backing up to enter the labs. Charlie nodded with a pained frown, following after. 

Silver turned to head inside but stopped when he saw the knife Daria had thrown still imbedded in the white concrete of the labs. He thought it odd how she missed him like that. Since entering the Interstellar Space Academy, she had become quite adept at blade throwing. If she wanted to hit him, she would have. He pulled it from the cracked wall, examining it, eyes catching a number of indents on one side. Realization dawned on him as he read the words crudely etched into the metal. 

The cyborg entered the labs, carrying the blade. Alphys was nearly done with the devices with Elizabeth’s help, despite the fray from outside. “Hey,” he said, walking to the table. He set the knife down for the others to see. “Found t’is.” The girls leaned over the countertop to look at the thing. “Oh,” Charlie said quietly. “That’s why she wouldn’t talk to us,” Ellie said with a frown. “We’ve got to help them. As soon as possible. Alphys? Those things ready?” Elizabeth asked. 

The scientist nodded, holding up five de-coder guns. “Ready.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria stumbled as they reappeared back at William’s hideout. Jeremy groaned as he tried to move. Footsteps echoed from the darkness before William emerged, a threatening look on his face. “Well?” he hissed. Daria glared at the man. “They saw us coming. They would have had us if we kept fighting.” William’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at a stunned Jeremy. “Vanny will take care of that,” he spoke quietly. 

Daria was a little taken aback at how calm he had reacted. She had expected him to yell at her or hurt someone or something drastic considering who he was. He looked over at the Daria, staring at her for a moment before responding. “In the meantime, why don’t you go check on Sam and Fritz. Come back afterwards and tell me how close they are. I’m going to do something that won’t set us back.” 

There was something almost monotone about the way he spoke, like he was under his own mind controlling head band himself. Just before he left the room, he paused, “oh, and next time, if this happens again,” he chuckled, “I won’t hesitate to hurt Jim.” He turned around to face her as he pointed his finger angrily at the floor, his voice suddenly showing how infuriated he was, “I can’t afford setbacks like these, do you know how much energy these things take?” he walked closer, “these things aren’t easy, and I gave you your chance and all you did was mess it up.” He looked down and sighed, trying to keep his cool, “one more mess up from you, and Jim is as good as dead. And I'll save you and bring you back here so you can do it yourself and watch as he cries out in pain for you, begging you to just end it for him as you sit there and watch the light leave his eyes." 

Daria glared back at him, trying to not let him see the tears that were filling her eyes as she thought of herself, uncontrollably hurting the person that she cared about most in life. She knew she had to figure out a loop hole and get everyone out. 

“oh, and take Jeremy to vanny won’t you.” William finished as he exited the room. Daria wiped her eyes as she looked down at Jeremy on the floor, Cody standing over him waiting for instructions. “let’s go.” she said, helping Jeremy off the floor with the help of Cody. 

They walked down the hall a ways until finally reaching the room that had Vanny in it. She was with Gabriel and Susie, leaning up against a table that had various sized needles on the top of it. Vanny sighed as she glanced up at the group. For one of the first times ever she wasn’t wearing her rabbit suit and they could see what she actually looked like. Pushing off the table with her hands she smiled as she laughed, “he get you in trouble? Heh, you deserve it. You really messed up back there.” Daria glared at her, not saying a word as she helped Jeremy walked over to where she was. 

“William said that you could help him.” Vanny rolled her eyes as she grabbed an elastic from her wrist and pulled her thin brown hair into a pony tail on the back of her head, “yeah, only cause that genius has gotten himself tazed one to many times.” Daria looked around, she had an idea. 

“Is this microphone still on?” She asked. Vanny looked up, “let me check,” Daria pulled her hair over to the side and Vanny inspected the chip, “yeah it is, guess we don’t need it on right now, just wastes data space.” She turned the mic off and turned to focus on Jeremy again, injecting all sorts of numbing shots to make the pain go away before she started to treat the burn wound, also avoiding the previous injuries from the fight in Fazbear Frights. 

Daria calmed her steadily speeding breathing as she looked up at Vanny, “can I ask you something?” Vanny didn’t look up from her workspace, “sure.” Daria could feel her face going pale, this could one of two ways, and one of them wasn’t good. “how long have you known William or been here I guess.” Vanny looked over at Daria, surprised. “why?” Daria shrugged her shoulders, “I'm just curious, we know nothing about you guys other than William killed the 5 kids and that you’re in a cult thing. Sorry if that’s too personal...” She added, trying to ease any anger that her question could have caused Vanny. 

“no. Its ok. And about 5 years.” Daria nodded her head, smiling, “cool, did you just want to join?” Vanny eyed Daria for a second, “what’s with all the questions?” Daria sighed, “I’m sorry I just, I’m trying to figure this all out. It’s apparent I’m not leaving anytime soon.” Vanny glanced back over at Jeremy, switching her gaze between the boy and Daria as she focused in on helping him again. “fair...” she sighed, picking up her tools again, “I uh- no. I didn’t choose to join necessarily. I’m ok with it now, William is like the father I never had and without this,” she looked around the whole room, “I have nothing. My loyalty lies with William and it always will.” Daria was almost taken aback by the girl’s words. She had no idea that Vanny hadn’t just wanted to kill people and joined the first cult she ran into. 

“Oh, that’s... great” Daria said, watching what Vanny was doing. She had to break her. That was the only way out of here without making the others come save them. She needed to go to them, not vice-versa. “I uh, don’t know about this fighting... I mean, I love fighting, it’s what I've been training for for a while now, but it feels weird fighting people I know.” Daria tried to sound like she was on Vanny’s team to get her to open up more. 

“yeah. You get used to it I guess.” Vanny sounded monotone but almost like she was angry or sad or something, Daria couldn’t lay her finger on it. “I suppose so. Does he make us uh... kill, a lot?” Daria looked up at Vanny as she paused what she was doing, “yeah... uh, yeah he does.” Daria couldn’t help but shudder as she turned her head a little and tried not to cry. If she couldn’t get out of here, she wouldn’t die, she would be forced to kill, which was worse. 

Vanny noticed Daria turning away and couldn’t help but feel a little bad for her. She remembered when she was new to the cult and killing, she had felt so bad. William had shown her no compassion whatsoever until she started being ok with everything, he made her do. After that, she felt like she didn’t need support or kindness from anyone, so he was just fine. “it gets easier. Eventually.” She tried to offer some sort of comfort but didn’t know how, there wasn’t anything she could do. She would get over it. 

Daria looked over at her and stared her in the eyes, “no it won’t.” Vanny felt a chill go down her spine. She couldn’t let some 16-year-old girl break her trust with a cult leader. “i see what you’re doing. Again, my loyalty lies with William and you can’t change that.” Daria felt her face flush, she hadn’t expected Vanny to figure out so soon. She had to go all in, it was her only shot, “Vanny, I can see you didn’t want to. That you still don’t want to. That you put on this crazy face and laugh off that feeling that tells you this isn’t right-” Vanny turned around, “You don’t know anything about me! I have been living like this because I have to. I don’t have a choice. He killed my family and spared me and that’s a debt I need to repay!!” Daria stood back; she knew he had done something. 

“He killed your family Vanny. The only thing you owe him is betrayal and pain.” Vanny looked away and focused on Jeremy again, “I can’t leave. I won’t leave. And if you try to, I’ll stop you.” Daria looked away from her, “I won’t try and leave. I’ll do what he says. I promise. But that doesn’t mean that I think that we should stay. I’m with you if you are.” She turned to walk away and find William again as Vanny spoke, “Promise me one thing.” Daria nodded, “Please don’t tell him about any of this. I won’t speak a word either. Please.” Daria smiled, “absolutely.” She turned, walking through the halls as she went to find William. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Ellie lifted the device in her hands, feeling its weight. It was sleek and black with red lenses at the end with a strangely shaped trigger. “I’m naming them ‘call-backs,” Alphys said, handing out the rest. Ellie nodded with a small smile. It was fitting. 

“So, what’s our plan?” Elizabeth asked, examining her call-back. Ellie’s eyes narrowed in thought. “We need to find a way to use these. I don’t dare go back to his place since he was able to find us here so easily.” 

“So, what, then?” Charlie questioned. “I think...I think we need to lure them to us,” Ellie said, flipping open her laptop as she set her call-back on the table. “Here?” Undyne inquired, stepping around to view the computer screen. “No... last time we really fought to defeat him, it was in his world and he nearly got the best of me and Daria. This time, it’s gonna be on my turf,” Ellie said under her breath, typing a line of neon code. 

Undyne nodded, ears folding down a little. “In that case, I think I’m gonna have to stay here. I’m not leaving the Underground unprotected.” Charlie nodded with a smile, putting a hand on the monster’s arm. “We understand; it’s probably best anyway.” The Captain returned the gesture with a grateful grin. 

Ellie finished the code for her world, looking up. “Ready to go,” she said as her friends gathered close. Alphys and Undyne waved in farewell as Ellie and the others glitched out. 

When they reappeared, Ellie lifted her arm to shield her eyes from the intense sunlight bearing down on them. “Utah,” she muttered as the light burned her eyes. “Where are we?” Silver asked, squinting at their surroundings. 

“Just outside of St. George, near Hurricane,” Ellie answered. The cyborg nodded, looking around. “Kinda warm, in’it?” He asked. Charlie giggled with a nod. “This is a pretty cool temperature for southern Utah actually-it's January after all, haha. You should see this place when it’s summer,” Ellie added with a chuckle. 

“So where do we go now?” Elizabeth asked. “There’s an old abandoned candy shop just up the road that’s still in decent condition. I thought we could go there,” Ellie responded, heading north. The others quickened their pace to follow her as they traversed over the sandy road. 

For a few minutes, they walked until they came upon a small structure. “Here we are,” Ellie said, walking to the door. It was obvious that it had been a house before a shop; its porch had a few sunken steps, some of the windows were boarded up, the green paint on its walls had begun to chip and fall away. 

“The nearest building is over a mile away,” Ellie said, pushing open the decrepit door. She walked in the dark shop, kicking away broken candy jars to set the laptop and backpack full of the call-backs on a table. 

Elizabeth looked at the wooden shelves on the wall, picking up a box from them. “Trick Candles-Watch your friends and family as they try to blow out their birthday wishes! -8 candles per set.” She opened the kit and began scattering them around the small room, lighting them with the included matches. She blew at one. It danced for a moment, dimming before it sprang back to full light. She smiled at the sight. 

Ellie and Silver were brushing away debris and trash from the tables, chairs, and floors while Charlie explored a bit. “Hey, El?” She asked, reappearing from the back of the counter, holding a few sealed root-beers. “How are we going to lure him here?” She asked, setting the drinks on the table. 

Ellie rubbed the back of her neck. “I hadn’t actually thought about how we’re gonna do that...but we’ll figure it out. For now, we just have to get ready.” Charlie nodded, helping the others as they rearranged the room. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria walked down the dark corridor, having just checked in with Sam and Fritz. She had no idea where William could be-Sam gave her vague directions and he wasn’t sure the man would even be where he directed her. She continued down the hall until she approached a door on her right. 

She couldn’t be sure, but she thought this is what Sam meant. Cautiously pushing the door open, she peeked inside. There he was. William stood at the room’s back, arms crossed as multiple screens on the wall before him showed various locations and robot blueprints. He turned at Daria’s entrance. 

“I... I checked on Sam and Fritz. They’re still working...and Jeremy’s doing fine,” Daria said quietly, looking at the floor. William said nothing. 

Daria kept her distance as silence passed between them. The longer the quiet persisted, the more awkward she felt. She wondered if she was supposed to do something until he finally spoke, allowing a strange sense of relief to wash over her. 

“I want you to reattempt your mission in two days. In the meantime, Vanny will be teaching you transport code so you can do that yourself. Jeremy won’t be going with you this time,” he said softly. Daria gave a small nod, keeping her head faced down. 

“I want your objective to be more focused, so this time, I’m narrowing your mission goal,” he continued. “I realize now that my expectations were a little...extreme-for your first assignment.” He tilted his head, focusing on the girl. “I want you to bring me Ellie. Don’t worry about the others unless you can find a way to get them too.” 

Daria looked up, confused. “You don’t want...Charlie?” William shook his head. Daria’s heartbeat quickened with anxiety as she dared pose her inquiry. “W... why?” She asked as respectfully as possible. 

At that, the man’s lips turned up into a slight smile that turned her stomach. “As you’ve likely guessed, I’m gathering an... alliance. I look only for the most intelligent, most physically apt, most cunning individuals.” 

He strolled a few feet nearer. “You should be honored to hear that I’ve found you and darling Ellie to fit what I want perfectly. My company would not complete without the two of you. You’re more suited to this than you realize,” he drawled, now directly in front of the girl. “She’s already quite skilled in coding and robotics. And you’ve already been well trained for violence, no?” 

Daria kept her ground, resisting the urge to back away-he was much too close for comfort. “She’ll never conform to you, and neither will I,” she said resolutely, feeling a scowl creep onto her face. “Won’t she?” William asked, raising an eyebrow mockingly, causing Daria’s cheeks to flush in embarrassment. 

“Even when the lives of all her living friends are on the line? What will she do then, I wonder? You seem to have turned rather easily for me.” Daria felt her scowl intensify as she glared downwards. 

A smirk crossed William’s face as he peered at the girl. “You know, you’re both more like me than you’d like to admit. Stubborn... determined... cunning. It reminds me of my own children.” Daria looked back up at that statement, eyebrows furrowing. 

“In fact,” he continued. “I can see how, in time, you both could learn to call me father.” 

Daria felt her insides revolt at his words and she fearfully backed away. The sentence disgusted her to no end... how dare he, how dare this monster assume they’d ever fall so low? How dare he imagine it! As if their true fathers meant nothing! 

Her breathing quickened as her expression twisted into absolute disgust and horror. “W-We would never... how dare you accuse... never...!” She rasped. William chuckled mockingly, sending horrid chills down Daria’s spine. She felt half-tempted to draw one of the many blades at her belt and plunge it through the man’s chest. Her fingers twitched near the closest knife, something that did not go unnoticed by her tormentor. 

“See? You’re more like me than you know,” he said with a sinister smile, watching her resist her violent urges. She clenched her fists, swiftly turning to head out the door. 

Then, a mischievous grin crossed her face as her head barely turned to her shoulder. “Oh... I think I forgot to mention that your daughter is with Ellie.” She could sense William stopping in his ridicule, she could feel the air tense. “Thought you might like to know,” she finished, stepping back out into the hall, shutting the door behind her. 

… 

Her smile quickly dropped as she started to her directed sleeping quarters. Yes, it felt so satisfying to get the last word, but she wished with every part of her soul that she would never have another encounter with that wretched barbarian who shook her to her core every time they spoke. He was manipulative and cunning, there was no doubt about that, with the ability to gage other’s buttons and push them exactly when he required its benefit. 

She shuddered as she thought on some of his last words... she sincerely hoped that his accusations were more of his manipulations and not truth... they couldn’t be as similar as he claimed... right? 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Hours later, Daria had been sent to meet Vanny to start training. They worked in near silence for a while, only speaking to give instruction or to ask for clarification. Daria had to give it to Ellie, coding was extremely difficult, but by the end of the lesson, she finally had a grasp on short-distance teleportation. It apparently would only work so long as she wore her watch, but she was fine with that. Travelling through time and space by her own control was stressful. 

With their time drawing to an end, Daria grabbed a water bottle and began heading to the exit before Vanessa stopped her. 

“Hey... so I’ve been thinking about what we talked about,” she said softly, taking her voice to no more than a hushed whisper. Daria nodded. “It’s... it’s not okay that he’s doing this to you-I mean like, the mind-controlling stuff. It should be your decision, like it was for me.” Daria looked at the woman in bewilderment. Was that really what she took issue with? Nothing else? 

Vanessa didn’t notice her expression as she continued. “Turn around,” she ordered. The girl didn’t disobey, hesitantly taking her command. She felt her hair brush away as a tool sharply clamped onto the chip at her neck. She winced as the tool forcefully turned, roughly pulling her neck with it before a tiny “pop” resounded. Vanny held a small disc in the tool now. 

“There. He can’t control you like that anymore. I don’t know how to take it out though, so it’s gonna have to stay there,” she said, setting the tools on a table. “T-thank you,” Daria stuttered, surprised by the gesture. “How long until we can get it off?” She asked. Vanessa shrugged. 

“No idea. I can do Jim’s chip in the morning... I’d do your friends too, but I don’t know how the headbands work. William didn’t let anyone help him with those... you’re gonna have to find a way to do that yourself if you want them off,” the woman said, picking up her backpack as she made her way to the door. Daria nodded. 

“Hey-Vanessa?” She called. The woman turned around, somewhat surprised at the use of her real name. “Thanks,” Daria said with a smile and a wave. Vanessa nodded, glancing down before she hurried out. 

Daria watched her leave, pleased with this new development. But how was she going to help the others? 

She sighed, heading out herself. She could only hope that Ellie had a plan. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Charlie stared out the window by the front door, she realized how much she was shivering. It hadn’t been terribly cold when they had gotten there, but as the night went on, it got drastically colder. 

“you can tell we’re still in Utah huh.” Charlie laughed as she looked up at the sky, now filled with clouds. Elizabeth walked up next to her, peering out the window, “for sure,” She turned to Ellie, smiling, “thought you said earlier today was cool for what it normally was?” Ellie looked up from the laptop, squinting her eyes, “I guess I haven’t been here for a while longer than I thought, thankfully I don’t think we will need to go anywhere else so a storm wouldn’t affect anything to much.” 

She stood up, closing the laptop and walking over to the window where the others were. It was getting a lot cloudier and she could see little beads of water slowly collecting on the glass. 

Charlie looked over, “you know what we’re going to do yet?” Ellie sighed, resting her head and a finger on the window, tracing a droplet as it trickled down the glass, “Pretty sure I have something. It’s out there though.” Silver grunted from the other side of the room, “well what’s yer idea lass?” 

Ellie stared at the sidewalk from outside the window, “someone going there and showing themselves, teleporting back here and letting them see the coordinates to get them to follow.” Elizabeth slid to the ground and hugged her knees, “that could work. Risky, but it could work.” Charlie pushed away from the window and walked over to a chair across the room, “it’s way too risky, what if someone gets caught. If they put up any sort of firewall like code that prevents teleportation, we’re done for.” 

Ellie clenched her hand into a fist, “I know. That's why I’d go.” Charlie turned around, “What- why?” Ellie lifted her head from the glass, “It doesn’t require any special skill to get there and be a distraction, I’m expendable and if something did happen-” 

Silver looked up, “lass, ye can’t-” Ellie interrupted, “I don’t mean to bash myself or anything, it’s just how it is. Silver you’re trained to fight and Elizabeth and Charlie, you guys can change into literal robots.” Charlie looked at the wall for a few seconds before shifting her gaze to Ellie, “Coding. What would we do. It’s how we get around.” Ellie shrugged, “not that hard actually, you can google anything you need and find it. I can teach you... just in case.” 

Elizabeth and Charlie looked at each other, silver jumped up from his seat, “lass, no one’s expendable ‘ere, we need everyone,” he reassured Ellie, turning to face the other two, “but I do feel like Ellie would make fer the best candidate, ‘specially with Daria there.” 

Elizabeth frowned, “I guess.” Ellie smiled, pushing away from the cold window, rain now pounding onto it as a few drops looked to be freezing into snow. “alright then, it’s settled.” She turned to face Charlie, “I’ll teach you some of the basics in Java, and we can start doing the important things.” Charlie nodded, still looking doubtful. 

Elizabeth stood, “I’m going to find somewhere to sleep.” Silver laughed, “think we all should be now ay?” Charle and Ellie agreed, and they all went to their own respective corners, curling up on the floor as they fell asleep to the sound of the rain on the roof. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

It felt like morning had come too early by the time Elizabeth woke up. Sitting up, she shivered as she grabbed for the sleeves on my jacket and pulled them down from her elbows. She could see her breath in the cold air, quickly deciding to look out the window. 

She wasn’t exactly surprised when she looked out the window, a thin layer of snow covered the ground. It looked like it wasn’t going to be there for much longer as the snow had turned back to rain and was starting to melt holes in the mounds of ice crystals. She smiled; she hadn’t seen snow in such a long time since she had been stuck underground for the past few years. 

“It’s so beautiful.” Elizabeth jumped a little as she turned to face the voice, “Yeah.” she replied after realizing it was just Charlie. Charlie laughed, “I never realized how much I missed some of these things until I got to experience them, it’s almost unfortunate because now I have to go back to being stuck inside of that puppet knowing what was out there and know I’ll never get to do it.” 

Elizabeth frowned, “Yeah, I guess so huh.” They both sat in silence, listening to the rain and staring at the snow for probably the last time until Silver walked in. “Well good mornin’ lassies! Hope yer all doin just fine now!” The two girls turned around, “Good morning!” They both echoed in response. 

Silver walked over and picked up the backpack that was sitting by the table with the laptop on it, “Guess we brought food this time now haven’t we!” Charlie felt her stomach react to the word food as she realized she hadn’t eaten in almost a day. “Oh, yeah we did!” She replied happily. Silver pulled out one of the bags, “’Cinnamon Bunny’ alrighty, hope that sounds just fine ay?” Elizabeth and Charlie shook their heads. 

Not too long after Silver had removed the cinnamon roll like treats from the bag, Ellie walked down the hall, plopping down on a chair next to the window and the other two girls as she tried to curl up even more in the warmth of her hoodie. 

“good morning!” Charlie and Elizabeth said almost in synch. She heard a “good morning” coming from the back of the room by the counter and saw Silver trying to figure out the food. “good morning!” She replied. 

She looked out the window down at the slowly disappearing snow, she loved winter and this storm specifically seemed to awe everyone. 

After a few short minutes, Silver walked over with a tray covered with 4 cinnamon bunnies on them. “’ere ye go!” he said, passing them out to all of them as they began eating. 

Elizabeth was the first to finish hers, she looked up at the group, “So what are we going to do today?” Charlie and Silver looked over at Ellie, “Write some code to get us to William, teach Charlie, and try and get this done and over with. We don’t know what sort of danger they are all in, the sooner we get to them, the better.” They all nodded in agreement as Ellie stood up, “Thank you for breakfast Silver, it was delicious!” Charlie and Elizabeth both agreed. “t’was me pleasure!” He chuckled. 

Ellie walked over to the table with the laptop still on it, sitting down as she waited for the computer to turn on. “While I write some of the new code I’m going to teach you some of the basics if that’s alright Charlie.” Charlie stood up and walked over, sitting next to her, “of course.” 

Once the computer had turned on and Ellie had logged in, she started to show Charlie some of the basic Java variables and expressions. After Charlie had most of them decently down, she started writing the new code that would get them to William. Charlie kept a close eye on everything she was typing, figuring out the basics of how it would work as she went along. 

After about 4 hours of typing and learning while Elizabeth and Silver played versions of checkers with old candy pieces they found lying around the shop, they finally had something that would get them there and back while allowing the cult members to track where they had gone. It had proved to take a lot longer than Ellie had thought but at least it was done and Charlie was decently educated on the basics. 

“alright,” Ellie began, “as soon as I’m there, I’ll start looking for Daria. If I run into anyone else first, I’ll just leave and hope that they try and come after me. I don’t know if I’ll be able to reach you before they do and warn you so be ready at all times.” Everyone nodded, “what are we going to do once they get here?” Charlie asked. 

Ellie smiled, “I’ve been thinking about that, if they leave anyone back at the base, like say anyone that isn’t under his control yet, we can send someone else to the base and get them out while they’re gone.” Elizabeth smiled, “That could work, fewer rescues later!” 

Charlie nodded, “But if they left anyone else back with them, we don’t go. We could use the numbers here more effectively.” The three of them nodded, “Sounds like a plan, but what’s yer strategy back ‘ere?” Charlie looked over, “Trap them.” Elizabeth gave her a puzzled stare, “they can just teleport away if they want though.” 

Charlie looked at her hands, “you know in some games how the character in the game can sometimes glitch? Like that old glitch in FNaF 1 where sometimes, if you kept opening and closing the security cameras and got jump scared, the clock would still run but the guard wouldn’t die?” Elizabeth nodded and Charlie continued. 

“If we can get them stuck in the code like that, caught in a loop, then we can control where they teleport to seeing as we are the ones with the code access, we would be the only ones that could free them.” Ellie smiled and nodded, reassuring Charlie that she was right. 

“so how are we going to do that?” Elizabeth questioned. “I added a little loop hole in the code, if they try and teleport away while attempting to take us with them, well let’s just say that we aren’t the variable type written in the code as ok to leave the world right now, so the system will crash, and they’ll be stuck here as the code won’t continue working.” Ellie finished. 

“but wouldn’t that cause the world to crash as a result?” Elizabeth sounded a little bit worried, understandably. Ellie shook her head, “I divided up the teleporting code that William used so if I did it right, only his teleporting code will stop working and seeing as there are many other ways we could write it, I’m not worried.” Silver looked confused but laughed, “they could just write ‘ter own different code an escape though can’t they?” 

“not unless they have access to a way to code, which is why we will need to take their watches. And even if we didn’t, we’d still have that time period where they’d have to write a new code which uh, takes a long time. There’s a reason that teleporting isn’t a thing in this world yet.” Everyone nodded. Charlie sighed, “well, we ready?” 

Ellie sat up, “Gonna have to be.” She hovered her cursor over the run button on the program as she looked up, “Be ready, good luck” She said, smiling, as she clicked the button and glitched away. 

“and now, we wait.” Charlie said, laughing. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

For once, Ellie landed in the base standing up and rather quietly as well. She squinted into the darkness to try and figure out where she was. She had been worried that she would teleport right into the middle of a room they were all in but thankfully it looked like there was no one around. 

She cautiously walked forward, slowing speeding up until she heard a cough. She stopped dead in her tracks before turning around to try and find where it was coming from. Taking her chances, she called out, “hello?” 

A few quiet seconds later, she heard a muffled response, “hello?” She recognized the voice, no one else even sounded remotely close, “Sans?” She heard another cough and started to follow the sounds, “heh, yeah.” 

As she got closer to the voice, she could start to see where they were. “hey are you guys ok?” She asked, see knelt next to the bars trying to get a better glimpse at their injuries. “yeah we’ll be fine.” he answered, forcing a smile. Ellie frowned, “we need to get you guys out of here, do you know where they all are?” 

Sans looked over in a different direction and pointed to a spot, “there’s a door right there, I think that they are just down the hall. I don’t know where for sure though, don’t get caught.” Ellie laughed as she squinted into the darkness to find the door, “I’m trying to get caught.” Sans chuckled, “you mean not trying to get caught?” Ellie glanced back at him, “I need to lure them away from this base, I’m trying to get caught.” Sans looked horribly confused but Ellie knew he’d understand later. 

“I gotta go, take care of yourself and Jim, we’ll be back to get you out soon, trust us.” She whispered as she stood up and started making her way to the door. “of course, good luck.” Sans replied. 

After a few seconds of stumbling in the darkness, Ellie ran into a wall. Sliding around it, she found a doorknob and cautiously turned it barely opening the door enough to peek into the long hallway. At the end, she heard what sounded like Daria and Vanny speaking. The opposite end, she heard a lower voice that she was assuming was William. 

Knowing it would be best to go Daria’s way, she double checked every possible angle to make sure no one was in the hallway. Heart pounding, she opened the door wider and slipped out, gently closing it behind her. She turned and crept down the hall towards the voices of the girls. She could feel her hands shaking and fought to keep her heart rate down. 

She reached for the doorknob, slightly opening the door to peek in. Vanny was leaning over a table fidgeting with some sort of tool while Daria was sitting in a chair across from her. She needed to get Daria alone, so she could talk to her, but how would she manage to get Vanny to leave. She looked to her side trying to think of something. 

She was quickly distracted when she heard a door farther down the hall open and Ellie caught a glimpse of the brown hand of the glitchtrap suit, he seemed to have stopped in the middle of the doorway to talk to Sam again. She panicked trying to think of what to do. 

Reaching for her backpack to find something to at least try and defend herself, the bag slipped off her shoulder and wacked the cracked open door in front of her, slowly opening the door until it was wide open. 

“Ellie? What the heck are you doing here?” Ellie looked up, rather shocked at how calm the two seemed. She looked down the hall again as William emerged from the door frame finally. She grabbed her bag and ran in the room, closing the door behind her. 

“Daria, I need to talk to you, I promise you’ll want to hear it I-” She was stopped by Daria grabbing her arm and pulling her over to a corner in the room where Vanny then pulled back a large sofa chair and Daria pushed her behind it, pushing it back against the corner after she was safely tucked away. “we’ll talk after.” Daria reassured as Daria ran over to the table and Vanny laid across the chair, right as William and Sam entered the room. 

Ellie hugged her backpack and tried to settle her breathing, she knew that Daria wasn’t under but had no idea why Vanny would help her. She tried to ignore the thought and listen to the conversation. 

“ah good, both of you are already here,” William spoke, “I know I told you that later we’d be going to try everything again but well, I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to have you put the headbands on the two left in the cells, first thing tomorrow, we go to Undertale and we end everything. “ 

Vanny threw her head back and closed her eyes, “we just gonna kill them all... or...??” William smiled, “yes.” Vanny’s eyes shot open as she sat up, “what?! That was a joke...” William glared at the girl, “at this point, I only need that Ellie girl, I’d rather kill the rest of them then babysit for the rest of my life.” Vanny raised an eyebrow, “we could use them thoug-” William rolled his eyes, “don’t you get it, I've spent YEARS trying to get them, developing a way to control their minds, and it hasn’t worked. There’s no point anymore, I don’t need them and all they’re doing is annoying me, I’d rather have them dead.” 

Daria glared up at the man, she couldn’t stand him and hated him with every fiber of her being, “why don’t you just kill me as well. I’d rather be dead than spend a life with you in it.” William smiled, laughing, “I know, I’m miserable aren’t I!” 

Daria wished she could’ve slapped him, and she would’ve if Ellie wasn’t there. She wanted to hear what she came for before securing her death with William. “oh, and I want you to kill everyone in that game as well.” Daria looked up at the man with disgust, “WHY, WHAT HAVE THEY EVER DONE TO YOU!” William turned around, “they’re just computer generated characters, much like we are, but you don’t care about us now do you.” Because you KILL innocent people!” Daria spat back. 

William chuckled, “that is correct now isn’t it,” He walked up closer to the girl, smiling as he stared at her, “but success is measured by ones happiness now isn’t it,” he laughed, voice barely a whisper as he spoke, “and I am very successful.” 

Daira shoved the man away from her, “GO.” she demanded. Vanny raised her eyebrows, she applauded Daria’s courage even though she was sure she would get herself killed because of it one of these days. 

William glared at the girl, “I’ll be seeing you in the morning.” He threw the mind control gadgets on the table in front of Daria as he turned and walked out the door. 

Vanny pushed herself off the couch as she kneeled over the back of it, “hey.” She said, smiling rather nervously. Ellie stood up and climbed over the top of the chair. “hey...” she sounded just as confused as she really was. She turned to Daria, “uh... whats...up...” 

Daria smiled, walking over to Vanny, “She’s not as bad as we thought. She doesn’t like William but has to way to leave, she won’t hurt you, trust me.” Vanny gave two thumbs up as she smiled at Ellie trying to show she wasn’t going to hurt her. “oh uhm, cool, nice to actually meet you I guess...” Vanny laughed, “yeah uh, sorry about everything I don’t really know what’s happening anymore, I want to get you guys out of here though.” Ellie sighed, smiling, “thank you I'm sur-” 

They all whipped their heads around as William entered the room again. He looked up at them and smiled, “well then, hello.” Ellie tried to think of something to do but she was completely frozen to her spot. “get her.” William instructed. Vanny grabbed onto Ellie’s arm. “put her with the others.” 

Ellie tugged at her backpack to see if she could get the teleportation code up but Vanny started walking her out the door and back down the hall before she had the chance. William noticed, “what’s in the bag ay?” Ellie glared up at the man, refusing to respond, “no? Hmm, take it too.” 

Vanny grabbed Ellie’s bag and walked her into the corner cell, the one with sans in it. Before leaving, she mouthed the words, “don’t worry” and winked, shutting the door behind her. 

Ellie threw her back against the wall as she slid down it. “well, you got caught.” Sans chuckled. “wasn’t supposed to go like that.” She stared at the bars around her, “I came here because I ruin everything else and what do I do? Ruin it.” sans sighed, “yeah, welcome to the club.” Ellie looked over at him, “you have magic, and you’re crazy good with it. You bring loads to the table. All I do is sit at my computer wondering what to do.” Sans looked over at the girl, “at least you can take more than one hit.” he mumbled. Ellie frowned, getting distracted from the conversation as voice erupted from outside the door. 

“what were you doing.” it was William. “She was trying to explain herself, it’s not like she had anywhere to go, and I didn’t have anything to do, so I amused myself with the brat’s lies.” William looked over at Daria and Vanny, pointing at the both of them, “I’m not afraid to punish either of you. You’ve already pissed me off once, I recommend not doing it again.” 

Ellie heard footsteps and assumed that meant William had left. After a few minutes of sitting in the darkness, they saw the lights go out in the hall and all went silent. Sans laughed, “ayyy that means its night. They all went to bed.” Ellie sighed, “great.” 

She rolled over on her side and tried to go to bed, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Vanny closed her ‘bedroom’ door as she walked in. She didn’t know why but she was starting to get fed up with William and his ways. She knew what she would have to do in Undertale tomorrow morning if she didn’t do something and she wasn’t ready to let that happen. She sat at the edge of her bed for around an hour in the dark, patiently waiting for 11 o’clock to arrive, and when it did, she took a deep breath, and stood. 

She tip-toed across the bedroom floor as she quietly opened the door and peeked out. No one was in sight and she slipped through the opening. She scurried a few doors down to Daria’s room, opening the door and walking across to where she slept, “hey, Daria, wake up.” Daria rubbed her eyes and yawned, “Vanny, what are you doing, if William catches you-” Vanny rolled her eyes, “I know I know, just- follow me.” 

She pulled Daria out of bed and out into the hall, winding their way through halls and down stairs until they reached the room where Sans, Jim, and Ellie were. Daria waited to ask what Vanny was doing until they were inside the room. She unlocked the door and they both slipped inside, closing and locking it again after them. 

“what they heck are you doing, trying to get us killed?!” Daria whispered harshly. Vanny continued walking towards the cells, “Getting you all out of here that’s what I’m doing.” Daria stood back, “Vanny he’ll have your head.” 

Vanny laughed, “then so be it.” She opened up the first cell, “now go get Jim, I think he should just be basically asleep now.” Daria walked in, kneeling next to Jim as she shook him, his eyes opened as he groaned in pain. “you’re fine, we’re going to get you out of here.” She wrapped her arm around his good shoulder and slowly hoisted him up. Vanny walked in the cell with a wheelchair, “keep this in the corner for moving hostages in the condition he’s in, use it.” Daria thanked her and pushed Jim out of the cell where they were greeted by Ellie and Sans. 

Vanny turned on her watch, “alright, where you guys going?” Ellie looked up at the girl, “my world, Hurricane Utah should work just fine, are you coming too?” Vanny pressed various buttons on her watch and a few seconds later looked up again, “I would, but I can’t. I need to stay here.” Daria grabbed onto Vanny’s shoulder, “no you don’t. Come with us, live your own life Vannessa, not the one he’s forcing you to.” Vanny sighed, “I-I don’t know I-” 

They all jumped as the door flung up and William stepped through the doorway. “ah, almost missed the party huh?” Vanny turned around, already visibly shaking, “Master, I was just putting them ba-” “ You think I don’t know what goes on around here? Vanessa, I trusted you.” Vanny’s voice was shaking, “I-I- I would n-never b-betray you! You know t-that! R-right?!” She was backing up as he stepped closer. 

Daria grabbed Vanny by the shoulders, “Come with us! Right now! Just for now! Please!” Vanny stared at the girl for a second before William started rather quickly, walking forwards, “YOU CAN’T ESCAPE ME VANNESSA. I WILL KILL YOU AND EVERYONE YOU LOVE JUST LIKE I DID BEFORE, AND YOU KNOW I WON’T HESITATE.” 

Vanny looked up at William before looked down again, “Not this time.” She lifted her wrist and slapped down her watch. Before they all knew it, they were standing ankle deep in snow. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Vanessa shivered as she looked at her new surroundings. “Hurricane doesn’t usually get snow,” she said as the others regained their balance. Ellie shook her head, helping Sans up. “C’mon,” she said, hurrying towards the candy shop. Silver, Elizabeth, and Charlie were on the porch before they made it to the stairs. 

“What happened?” Charlie asked in concern, holding the door for the others to come through. Spotting Vanny, she bared her teeth. “And what is she doing here?!” Sans waved a boney hand her direction, shaking his head. “She’s with us now. She helped us escape,” he said, stepping inside. “She also took the control module out of my chip,” Daria said quietly to the girl. Charlie gave no response, but her glare on the woman lightened. 

“Things didn’t go according to plan,” Ellie said, taking a seat at the bar. Silver and Daria helped Jim inside and sat him down at one of the tables so the cyborg could properly attend to his injuries. 

The man’s eyes blazed with anger as he gently wound bandages around the boy’s ankle. “Doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “That wretch is gonna get what’s comin’ ta him either way.” Jim tensed in pain, still unconscious as Silver dabbed a cloth at his shoulder wound. Daria nodded; eyebrows furrowed. “Yes, but how? He’s still got the others with him under his control.” 

Elizabeth dawned a happy grin, turning to pick up gun-shaped objects from the bar. “Alphys made these! “Call-backs”-they’ll recode the headbands for us. All we need to do is get up close,” she said, handing one to Daria. The girl held it in her hands, nodding. 

“Great...but now we’ve got to get the others here,” Sans said, taking the object from her to examine it himself. “Good model. Alphys was always better at robotics than I was.” 

Vanessa, who had thus far remained quiet, crossed her arms with a skeptical look on her face. “Really? You think those things will bypass my ma-um, ex-master's inventions?” Elizabeth nodded. “I know my dad. He always has a backup de-activation model...ever since my incident.” 

The room got very awkward for a moment before Ellie let out a forced chuckle, trying to lighten the atmosphere. “Yeah, but how are we going to get them here? I didn’t think about them coming to this world...if they do, they’ll probably go back to my house or something and that’s not where we want them to be.” 

“Any ideas?” Elizabeth asked, running a hand through her blonde bangs. The others shook their heads. 

Suddenly, flashes of light emitted from outside. Charlie ran to the window, trying to look through the filthy glass. “They’re here,” she muttered. Ellie looked out to see Susie, Gabriel, Fritz, Jeremy, and Cody steadily approaching, all armed. “How did they find us?!” Daria asked in a panic. 

“The watches...” Vanny trailed off, a look of realization dawning on her face. “I forgot-they have trackers in them.” Charlie shot the woman an angry look as she hurried to a table to grab a call-back. Sans, Elizabeth, and Ellie all followed after. 

“Someone’s going to have to stay here with Jim and her,” Charlie said, glaring at Vanessa as she approached the door. 

“I can help you guys-” Daria started, reaching to grab the last call-back before Silver took her arm. “I don’t t’ink so, missy. I’m not lettin’ ye outta my sight fer a while.” 

Ellie nodded in approval before turning to run outside. Sans was holding down Susie and Fritz while Charlie kept Gabriel, Jeremy, and Cody far enough away for Elizabeth to come around to take care of Sans’ opponents. Ellie hurried to help her, trying to keep a firm hold on Susie as she raised the call-back to her headband. 

With some struggle, she finally got the lens to line up. With a beep and a pop, the violet light of the device went out and the band loosened. Ellie pulled the thing off, helping a disoriented Susie to her feet. Elizabeth did the same to Fritz as Sans moved to help Charlie. 

“You okay?” Ellie asked as the blonde blinked, looking down at her hands. “W... what happened?” Susie asked in confusion. “William had you under his control. Do you not remember?” Ellie asked in concern. “Not really... everything’s kind of blurry,” she replied, rubbing her temples. 

“Maybe we can jog your memory, but let’s get you insi-” Ellie began, before she felt a strong arm hook around her neck. She yelped as it pulled her back to a chest, causing Ellie to instinctively grab at it, trying to pry it away from her. Susie gasped as Ellie heard a rough voice speak low into her ear. 

“I’d tell your friends to stand down if I were you... or else I might have to cut that pretty face of yours. My master wasn’t specific in how he wanted me to bring you to him.” Ellie felt her breathing quicken as Sam brought a cold blade to her cheek. “Yeah right,” she scoffed, trying to sound more confident than she felt, though even she heard the waver in her voice. 

“Fine,” the man growled, putting pressure on the knife. Ellie winced as the tip broke her skin, causing thick beads of blood to bubble around it. “I can go deeper... have you changed your mind, princess?” Sam asked. 

She looked desperately to where the others were still trying to detain Jeremy, Cody, and Gabriel, unaware of what was happening her. Susie was too shocked and disoriented to do anything. Her heart raced as she barely shook her head. 

“You’re being more difficult than you have to be you know. I can do this here too,” Sam said, moving the blade down to her neck. Ellie began to shake fearfully before she shook her head again. 

Sam pulled the knife away before angling it towards her neck. “Let’s see if something a little more painful will get you talking,” he snarled. Ellie shut her eyes in anticipation... 

But nothing came. She opened her eyes in confusion as she felt Sam’s arm go limp and fall from her neck. She gasped as he collapsed onto her before falling to the ground...she turned to see a red spot gathering on his back as he lay face down in the snow. 

Ellie looked up to see Daria tightly clutching a red-stained knife, eyes widened. She dropped the blade and brought shaking hands stained with blood to her face, shaking her head wildly. “W-What did I...” she began as tears gathered at her eyes. “I wasn’t thinking, I just saw him from inside-no, no-” 

Ellie dropped to one knee and lay two fingers just under Sam’s jaw. A faint pulse could be felt on his cold skin. “He’s alive, it’s okay,” she said, standing. By then, Charlie, Sans, and Elizabeth had recovered the others and were bringing them towards the building. Elizabeth led them and Susie inside while Sans and Charlie came to investigate what was happening. 

Charlie wrinkled her nose in disgust as she looked at Sam, still unconscious as blood began leaking onto the snow, staining it scarlet. 

“W-We’ve gotta help him, we can’t just leave him here,” Daria said worriedly. Charlie raised a hand over the man’s back as white light emanated from it. “There,” she said as the light dissipated. “That’ll at least stop the bleeding.” 

“K, now we’ve just got to get this guy inside,” Ellie said, reaching to grab his arm. Just as she extended her hand, he began to pixelate and glitch before disappearing entirely. 

“What in the world?” Sans asked in confusion, looking around as if to see where the man went. “William, he must have known-the headbands are out, and Sam wasn’t responding, so he probably guessed what happened,” Ellie said. The others nodded in agreement as they turned to head back inside. 

“We should hurry. He’ll likely send the rest of his followers next; we’ve got to be rea-” Daria began, halting suddenly. She collapsed to the wood of the porch with a groan. “Dar? Daria!” Ellie said, dropping next to her. She took her by the shoulders, shaking her to try and get some sort of response as the girl’s eyes fell half-closed. 

Daria groaned again as Charlie hurried to her side. “Can’t...move...” she murmured. Sans began trying to pull her to her feet, hooking one arm around her back and under her shoulder. She was limp as a puppet, seemingly unaware of what was happening as Sans pulled her inside. Ellie moved to help before she noticed the metal chip at her neck now flashing a brilliant red. 

“Charlie-look,” Ellie said, pointing. The girl’s eyes widened. “Vanny!” She called, hurrying in after as Sans guided Daria to a faded green couch in front of the window. The woman turned to face her. “You took the control module out of her chip, right?” She questioned. “Yeah,” Vanessa replied. “Then, what is it doing?!” Charlie demanded, pointing at Daria. 

The woman took a step closer, peering at the metal. “No... he wouldn’t...” she murmured as her eyes widened slightly at the sight of the red flashing. “What?” Ellie asked. “He’s drawing as much energy as he can from her...I think he’s going to try to come here himself,” Vanessa said, looking at Ellie. 

Ellie’s breathing quickened at that statement. She shot a look at Charlie. “Then we need to take that chance. Let’s get the loop code here, right now.” The girl nodded, hurrying to a table where Ellie set down her laptop and flipped it open. The two began talking lowly as Ellie typed furiously at the keyboard, writing long lines of neon figures on the black screen. 

She shot a look back at Daria, who’s breathing had slowed greatly, completely unresponsive to everything around her. “Is she going to be okay?” She questioned, looking up at Vanessa in concern. “Yeah... you heard him yesterday. He wants you two alive if he can help it. Draining like this won’t kill her... but it’s not something we want continuing.” 

Ellie swallowed, nodding as she finished securing the code. “There,” she said, typing the last character. “All we have to do is wait for this to load properly, then if William so much as steps a bunny toe here, he’ll get caught in the loop.” Charlie nodded, looking at the screen. “How long do we have to wait?” She asked. 

“Dunno...fifteen minutes maybe?” Ellie replied. “But you guys need to leave,” she continued, looking at the others. 

“What?!” Jeremy demanded, standing from his stool. “Are you crazy?! You’re going to need help if that thing is coming here!” he said. 

Ellie shook her head firmly. “You heard Vanessa. At this point, he just wants me and Dar. If he has to kill to get to us, he won’t hesitate. I won’t let you all stay if it means needless danger.” 

Fritz and Cody got up to argue as well as Susie furiously shook her head in disagreement. Gabriel and Sans started to speak in objection before Charlie called loudly over all of them. 

“Guys!” She shouted. Her voice resounded in the room, causing the others to quiet in reverent obedience. “Ellie’s right.” The girl’s friends watched in shocked silence, looking ready to protest again before she continued. 

“Look, he wants her for a reason. She’s smart, and she’s a fighter, always on her heels and ready for any obstacles in her way- that’s why she can do this. If there’s anyone who can take him down, it’s her. But to him, we’re expendable. We need to let them settle this...besides, she’s already set a trap for him. We need to get out of the way.” 

No one spoke for a moment as everyone considered this. Susie stood. “Yeah...I don’t like it, but you’re right.” Gabriel got to his feet next to her, taking her hand firmly as he nodded in agreement. “We’ll go,” he said. 

The others nodded, standing. Ellie smiled. “Thank you. I’m sending you all to Treasure Planet-if that’s okay with you, Silver,” she said, loading up the transport code. The cyborg nodded, putting Jim back in the wheelchair where he finally began to stir. 

“Can someone help Daria?” Ellie asked as the others gathered around. “Sure,” Cody replied. As he touched her shoulder, she glitched. He withdrew his hand in surprise. “Uh...” he said, motioning. “I don’t think we should touch her,” Vanessa said worriedly. 

“No kidding, Sherlock,” Fritz muttered. “What do we do, we shouldn’t just leave her here-” 

He was cut off as the sound of electricity running echoed like thunder outside. Through the dusty glass, they could see a purple light glitching on the road. “He’s coming, you gotta go!” Ellie said hurriedly. “But-” Susie said, looking back at Daria. “I’ll take care of it, just leave, hurry!” Ellie interrupted. 

The others barely had time to protest before Ellie hit enter, sending them away in a flash of white light. She hurried to the corner where Elizabeth’s blanket lay abandoned on the floor and threw it over Daria, trying to make her as inconspicuous as possible. Running back to the computer, she watched the loading bar inch slowly. 

“Crap, c’mon,” she muttered. There must be at least eleven minutes left on that thing, if not more. She looked back outside as William finally materialized completely. She gasped as he turned his head towards the shop. Shutting the lid of her laptop, she hurried behind the counter, careful to keep her head down as she hid between its shelves. Her hands shook madly as adrenaline coursed through her. 

She listened intently as the sound of footsteps coming up the porch creaked loudly behind her. She had to bite her knuckle to stifle her loud breathing as the entry-bell chimed and the door opened. 

Ellie did her best to remain silent as slow but heavy footsteps stalked to the center of the store. She shut her eyes tightly as the man approached the counter and walked along it, his shadow showing how he occasionally stopped to peer over it. 

“Hello there...I know someone is here hiding. Don’t be shy. Come on out...” William said softly, almost comfortingly. Ellie heard him turn and give a low chuckle as he faced the window. 

“Cute,” he spoke. Ellie could see in the reflection of one of the glass cabinets him standing directly in front of the couch. He reached out his hand and drew the blanket away from where Daria lay silently, eyes closed, unaware of his presence. “Well, there you are. Thanks for letting me come, sweetheart,” he said with a smirk. “But surely, you’re not the only one here...no... they wouldn’t have left you.” 

He turned and began walking around again, hands tucked behind his back. He whistled a low tune-one that Ellie recognized as the melody of “Swan Lake.” It was odd, but it calmed her just a little. Until...it slowed...and stopped. 

She looked at the cabinet to see William stepping quietly into a side room. Taking her chance, she silently crept out of her spot to move to hide behind a purple-spotted curtain in front of the trick mirror on the other side of the room where she was sure William had already looked. 

She thanked herself for choosing to wear sneakers as her footsteps remained silent, hurrying over to the corner where she pulled the curtain over her. It was just long enough to cover her toes. 

The loading bar was closer, but not close enough. Probably six minutes left, she thought. She froze as she heard William step back into the room. Silence stood still until he spoke. “Well, I really am just taking you back, huh, kiddo,” he murmured, presumably to Daria. 

Ellie felt herself panic. If he took her now, she wasn’t sure they could rescue her. And if there was an opportunity for her to catch him, it was now. 

She inhaled a shuddering breath. “I’m right here,” she said, pulling the curtain open slowly. 

Her eyes caught William’s dark ones as a small smile grew on his face. “Thought that might do the trick,” he said with a satisfied expression. “Now, why don’t you come a little closer?” he coaxed. 

Ellie swallowed, taking a few slow, cautious steps nearer, still keeping her distance. “That’s a good girl,” William murmured, holding out a beckoning hand. 

She stopped a good eight feet away. “What do you want?” She asked quietly, grip firm on the laptop. “I think you know, sweetheart,” he replied, his demeanor patient. 

Ellie hugged the computer closer to her. “Yes...but why?” She questioned. William’s smile grew slightly. “You, my dear, are perfect for the group I want to create. So is your friend here,” he said, looking down at Daria. “She’s more ready than she thinks she is. Look what she did to poor Sam,” he said, motioning to the girl’s hands still coated in blood. 

“And perhaps you’ll need more time, but you’ll come around. They always do. And I’m willing to wait,” he said, looking back at Ellie. She shook her head, a frown growing. “I don’t know how you can do the things you do, but I could never get accustomed to that kind of evil,” she said resolutely. 

“Won’t you?” William challenged, an eyebrow raising. “Why don’t you just come with me and we can test that theory.” Ellie felt her face contort into an expression of upset disgust. “You’d have to drag me there,” she retorted. 

“Well, lucky for you princess, I can do just that,” he said, tightening his grip on his blade. Ellie felt fear seize her as she hurriedly glanced around the room for anything she could use as a weapon as the man began walking closer. She set the laptop on the table and picked up a plank of splintered wood from the floor, raising it like a bat. 

“This doesn’t have to be difficult sweetheart,” he said. “Last chance before I have to make this messy.” Ellie’s eyes narrowed as she raised the wood a little higher. “Fine,” William snarled, charging forward. 

Ellie gasped as he sprinted towards her. He was a lot faster than she anticipated, already closer than she wanted him to be. She squeaked, dodging his lunge and hurrying under a table and out the other side. He bared his teeth and ran back at her, swinging the knife dangerously at her wooden defense. 

The plank cracked under each blow until it was finally knocked away from her, causing her to fall back onto one of the tables. Dazed, Ellie barely got a moment to react before William was on top of her, one hand around her neck, holding her to the table. 

He leaned in, their noses almost touching as he spoke, eyes narrowed. “Know that this sort of behavior won’t be tolerated back home,” he said threateningly. “This is my home,” Ellie shot back angrily. “And I’m not going with you!” 

She froze as he cocked his head at her. “Oh, really? I don’t think you’re in any position to say otherwise, my dear,” he said softly. Ellie shuddered as he brought his knife’s tip to her hair, toying with it. “You’re mine now. And there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it. Soon enough, you’ll come to me.” 

Ellie felt herself recoil at those words. She shut her eyes tightly, feeling tears gathering at them at her hopelessness before she remembered. Glancing at the laptop, who’s lid was cracked open from the fray, showed that the loading bar was seconds from completion. 

Ellie looked intently back at William and braced her knee. With one swift motion, she brought it up forcefully into the man’s abdomen, causing him to let go of her as he clutched his torso in pain. She pushed herself off the table and ran to the laptop. She took one last look at William who’s face showed nothing but fury and hit enter. 

It took mere seconds for everything to happen. William suddenly froze and glitched in and out of focus, making strangled yells until he disappeared. Going back to the source code of her world, Ellie saw as a continuous line of characters in William’s from looped over and over again. He was stuck alright. She smiled and looked up as Daria gasped. 

“Dar!” She said hurrying over. “Woah...what happened?” Daria asked, clutching her head. “It’s over, we did it-William's gone!” Ellie said with a grin. Daria looked at her and a smile grew on her face. “Really?” Ellie nodded her head excitedly. “El-you did it,” the girl said happily. 

“Wait,” she continued, feeling the back of her neck. When she withdrew her hand, she held the chip within her fingers, glitching and sputtering with electricity. She laughed as she held the thing. She turned, sitting upright as she dropped the chip to the floor. With one motion, she stomped on it, turning it into a mess of circuit boards and metal. 

“Good riddance,” she said with a smile, kicking it away. “Where is everyone?” 

“On Silver’s ship,” Ellie replied. “Let’s go tell them about the good news,” she said with a smile, opening the laptop. “Hey, El?” Daria said, putting a hand on her shoulder before Ellie could proceed. “You’re awesome, you know that?” 

Ellie smiled. “Thanks...you too.” Daria nodded as Ellie turned, hitting enter. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------- 

In the blink of an eye, they were standing on the deck of Silver’s ship. Daria had stumbled to the ground on impact thanks to her lingering weakness that William had caused her. She was starting to get better, but still felt weak. Ellie rushed over and helped her off the ground. 

“Thanks,” she said, standing up, “how long has it been? Since they’ve been here?” Ellie looked down at the watch on her wrist, all scraped from the previous eventful days, “45ish minutes if I remember right.” Daria nodded looking around. “they must be down in the gallery or something.” Ellie nodded looking over at the stairs. 

“can you walk?” she asked. Daria looked down at her legs, “yeah-” She took a step, her leg wobbling until it gave way from underneath her and she started to fall, Ellie wrapping her arm around her shoulder as she helped her back up. “Yeah I’ll help you.” she laughed. Daria face palmed, “yeah that’s probably best.” 

They made their way over to the stairs, slowly maneuvering down them until the gallery was in sight. For a second, Daria thought that the group must have been somewhere else considering how quiet it was. The silence didn’t last for long though when they finally made their way to the last few steps and talking started. 

Daria jumped as Silver stood up, “ay! I knew ye lads could take em!!” He ran over and squeezed Daria, Ellie jumping back and smiling at the sight. Daria laughed, “of course haha!” Silver chuckled as Charlie, Elizabeth, and Vanny, pushed their way to the front, “Is he gone?!” Vanny asked, sounding more worried than relieved. 

Ellie nodded, smiling, “hopefully. Only way he can ever get out is by a break in the loop which would require someone knowing he’s there to begin with.” Charlie ran forward and hugged Daria and Ellie which proved to turn into a big group hug as everyone else piled in too. 

Silver chuckled, “bet everyone’s hungry now that ta pressure’s off!” Everyone laughed, “best be cookin’ something ay?” Silver smiled as he turned around and walked off to the kitchen. 

Ellie turned and nudged Daria’s shoulder as everyone went to sit down. Daria faced her, “huh?” She asked. Ellie laughed, tilting her head over to a table. Daria looked over at where Ellie was pointing her, sitting there was a sleepy Jim staring back at her, smiling as big as she had ever seen him smile. She grinned, looking back at Ellie as she caught her balance and booked it over to the table trying to avoid falling, using the tables and chairs along the way to help steady herself. 

She landed not so gracefully on the table Jim was sitting at as she pushed herself up laughing at how clumsily she had wrecked the tables in her path. She slid onto the chair next to Jim as she threw her arms around him. 

“heh, hey” Jim said, rather quietly. Daria sat up, still holding his hand, “hey, you ok?” Jim smiled, “yeah, great. You?” Daria smiled, nodding. Jim squeezed her hand tighter, looking her directly in the eyes, “you really are the strongest person I know.” Daria smiled, squeezing his hand too. “I love you Daria. I really do.” 

Daria looked up, meeting his eyes, “I love you too Jim.” Jim smiled, raising his good arm to hug her again. Daria rested her head on his shoulder as the exhaustion kicked in, eventually making the tired couple fall asleep. 

Charlie looked over at the corner, smiling as she saw them asleep. She turned back to face to group as the commotion was yet again starting. She rested her head on her fist as she watched Fritz and Jeremy yet again, fight. She would be lying if she said it wasn’t kind of funny. 

She looked down at her hands and started to twiddle with her fingers, not knowing what else to do seeing as the conversation was basically just Fritz roasting everyone now as Jeremy had stepped down. She was extremely tired, physically and mentally. William was gone now and she didn’t now what to do. She was with her friends now, but soon she’d be alone again. Without any worries, she would have nothing to think about for the rest of forever. Except the fact that her friends were out living their lives while she was stuck there. 

She stopped moving her fingers and pushed against the table, standing up as she made her way over to the hallway to find the room she normally occupied while onboard. She had easily walked out of the room unnoticed by anyone due to the hectic atmosphere. 

After walking about 30 seconds, she reached for the door knob before noticing a little balcony door at the end of the hall. She pulled her hand away from the door as she started walking toward it. Tugging on the rusted door knob, she opened the door, revealing a small little patio with wooden railings, providing a view to all of the galaxy that floated beneath them. 

She walked over, resting her arms on the railing as she fixed the hood on her maroon jacket and pulled her hair to her side. She didn’t love the stars. Others had always been so fascinated with them but all they did were scare her. Any of them could blow up and kill everyone at any given moment, not to mention how space was literally and infinite supply of them. She sighed, looking down over the railing beneath them. 

She let herself hang over the railing for a while until she heard a noise next to her followed by a voice, “heya”. She jumped up, letting out a muffled scream through her jacket sleeve. “Sans, what the heck are you doing here- you scared me” Sans pulled his mitten covered hands out of his pocket as he shrugged, chuckling. 

He walked over to the railing and leaned up against it, “what’s up.” Charlie smiled, “nothing.” Sans nodded his head, “alright, then why’d you leave.” Charlie looked over at the skeleton, “why would I have stayed” Sans tilted his head back and forth, “fair, except for we’re all your friends.” Charlie looked at the wooden railing, “I know. That's exactly why I left.” Sans looked rather confused by her response, Charlie noticed, “We’re all going to leave, and then I’ll be alone. I’d rather not keep exposing myself to happiness when I’m just going to wake up and be sad for the rest of forever.” 

Sans stared out into space, “understandable, but that’s also why you need to be back inside. So that when you’re sad, you can think about when you weren’t sad and recognize your life doesn’t entirely suck.” Charlie laughed, “gee thanks.” Sans smiled, “learned that one from pap.” Charlie looked at him, “I could tell.” Sans smiled back at her, “wanna go back inside?” Charlie looked over the railing again. “yeah.” Sans nodded, “cool” he opened the door and waited for her to walk through as they walked down the rest of the hall. 

They were greeted with the smell of soup approaching the gallery as Silver jumped in front of them, waving bowls in their faces as they sat down at a table with Gabriel, Susie, and Fritz. 

“hey!” Susie smiled at the two as they sat down. “hey!” Charlie replied, she was in a little better of a mood, Sans was a good friend. “you guys remember anything yet?” Gabriel and Susie looked at each other, “a little, mainly just when he did it though, nothing really after that.” Gabriel explained. Charlie nodded. Sans laughed, “lucky for you guys heh.” Fritz smiled, “guess so.” They all turned their attention to their bowls as they started eating. 

Susie looked up, “So Vanny, are you coming back with us?” Vanny put a hand around her neck, “uh, do I have a choice? I mean, I gotta bring Sam back. I promise I won’t interfere with your lives...” Ellie could tell that the last sentence was aimed more at Charlie who was still a little skeptical of the girl. 

Elizabeth sat up, “you could come home with Cody and I!” Vanny turned to face the blonde-haired pair, “you sure? I really would hate to impose.” Cody smiled, “ah its not that big of a deal, really! We could always use more company! And if you ever needed to talk to anyone, the warehouse is always open! We won’t mind!” Vanny smiled, relieved, “thank you guys, means a lot.” Elizabeth beamed, “anytime!” 

Susie smiled, “alright, that’s great!” Charlie stared at her empty bowl, “when are we going back?” she asked. Everyone turned to face Daria who had recently woken up when the soup was made. She looked over at Silver who shrugged, “yer all free ta stay however long ye like!” Daria smiled, “thanks uh, I don’t know when do you guys want to leave?” 

Charlie sighed, “Probably best to go sooner than later.” Sans nodded his head, “yeah.” Silver frowned, “so are ye thinkin a few days er tomorrow?” Charlie looked down, “I’ll probably go tomorrow, doesn’t mean you all have to, I just kind of want to.” Susie smiled, placing a hand on Charlie’s arm, “we’ll all go with you Charlie, whenever that is.” Charlie smiled. 

Silver stood up, “ay, so tomorrow then.” Gabriel nodded, “looks like it!” Silver nodded, “right then! I’ll see ye all tomorrow mornin then!” He turned to face the stairs as he walked away, “my apologies for haven ta leave so soon but I’ve got some things to attend ta!” he chuckled. 

Everyone called out their “goodbyes” and “thank you’s” as he waddled up the stairs. The next few hours were spent playing various games and talking. It felt like only a few minutes had passed when Charlie checked the time, it was only 10:28PM, but she was exhausted. She set her cup of water down on the table and pushed her chair out, “I’m going to go to bed, I’ll see you all in the morning.” Fritz waved, sitting back in his chair with his feet resting on the one next to him, “g’night.” 

A few moments after she had started walking down the hall, she turned to find Sans at her side again. “hey,” he said, “i’m tired too heh” Charlie laughed, “when you are not tired?” Sans shrugged, “never” Charlie turned to face her door, “i’ll see ya tomorrow,” Sans winked, “if I decide to wake up that is...” Charlie rolled her eyes, laughing, “see ya sans.” She walked in her room and shut the door behind her, collapsing onto her bed as she fell asleep. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria stood up, feeling much more energized and stronger, despite how tired she was. She rolled Jim’s wheelchair over to where he was sitting and helped him into it. Saying goodnight to the rest of their friends, who were all putting things away so they could go to bed, she pushed Jim down the hall into the room he was staying in under the deck so he wouldn’t have to traverse the stairs. She opened the door, letting Jim use his good arm to move himself through the doorway. 

“thanks Dar.” He said, turning the chair around to hug Daria. “no problem.” He reached forward and hugged her, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He finished, pulling her in and giving her a kiss before closing the door, “night” she replied. She turned around and started walking down the hall, she noticed how red her face was. She didn’t understand how every time she was with him, even after all these months, he still managed to make her nervous like that. She smiled as she entered the gallery, greeted with Vanny, Susie, Fritz, Gabriel, Jeremy, and Ellie left. 

“Cody and Elizabeth go to bed?” she asked. Jeremy turned to face her, “yup.” Daria nodded, “nice.” Ellie nodded, “indeed...” They sat in almost silence for a few seconds before Daria spoke up, “Well I’m going to bed. Goodnight!” Everyone waved and said goodnight. Vanny stopped her, “wait, uh. Look,” Daria shifted her gaze back to the group as everyone looked over at Vanny. “I- uh. I just wanted to say sorry, for everything, I never meant to cause any harm really, I just didn’t understand that there were other options. He made me think that I had to do those things, but that doesn’t validate what I did. I’m so sorry that you’re all affected because of that.” Everyone smiled. 

Susie stepped forward, “you changed Vanny, that’s all that matters. We would forgive William if he tried to change too, sure it would be one of the hardest things ever, but that’s all we really want.” Vanny smiled. “thank you.” Susie grabbed Gabriel and Fritz and pulled them in as they hugged Vanny, everyone else around the room joining in. Vanny laughed, “sorry to get all sappy and emotional” she did a fake gag and everyone laughed. Daria smiled, “I’ll see you all in the morning!” everyone said good night and they all went their separate ways. All somewhat dreading what the morning was going to bring. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Daria opened her eyes, yawning and stretching her arms. She sat up, looking around the room to find her clock. 7:04am, perfect. She smiled, jumping out of bed as she walked to her closet and pulled out one of her many variations of white shirts and black skirts. She stomped on the floor as she fit her fee into her boots, opening the door and making her way to Jim’s room to help him get into his wheelchair considering he couldn’t do almost anything without help. 

She knocked on his door, no response. That was what she expected, it was early after all and he was probably still asleep. She cracked the door open slowly and peeked her head in. He was lying in bed still, asleep as ever. 

She opened the door all the way and walked over to the side of his bed. She put a hand to his face, “Jim, you up?” He turned his head, eyes squinted shut. She smiled, moving her hand to the top of his head as she brushed the hair out of his face, “hey, wake up” Jim lifted his ok arm and stretched as he opened his eyes to look at Daria. She smiled, “morning!” Jim laughed as he grabbed her hand and squeezed it, “morning” 

Daria stepped back and grabbed his wheelchair, pushing it over to the side of his bed and helping him into it. 

She pushed him out of the room and down the hall to gallery where, to no surprise, Silver was already up and making breakfast. 

“hello!” she called as they walked to a table. Silver turned around, seeming to have been a little frightened by the sudden visitors. “Ay! Hello lads! How’d ye sleep?” Jim yawned, “great. You?” Silver chuckled, “Ah, just fine thank ye!” 

Daria turned around just in time to see Ellie and Susie walk in the room, both laughing as they stopped their conversation and waved at Jim and Daria. 

“Good morning!” They both said as they walked over to sit at the table next to the couple. “Morning!” Daria replied, “how are you guys?” Susie laughed, “Tired, hungry, and really hyper.... which isn’t good” Ellie laughed, accidently snorting which sent Susie laughing right after, Daria looking more concerned than anything else. “You guys ok?” She asked, chuckling at her friends. Ellie looked over at her, “I’m so tireddd.” Daria nodded, “me too honestly” 

Ellie and Susie were finally starting to stop laughing as Jeremy, Fritz, Gabriel, and Charlie all walked in, taking their places in seats around the gallery as Cody, Elizabeth, Vanny, and Sans all followed soon after. 

Before they could start talking again, Silver rushed in with food on plates, handing them out to everyone before sitting down himself and eating his own breakfast. After eating for about 45 minutes, Charlie stood up, walking over and sitting down next to Ellie, “hey, I had a question.” Ellie turned to look at Charlie, raising her eyebrows implying that she was listening. “I wanted to see if you could teach me how to write teleportation code, so we could still get around and see everyone.” Ellie smiled, “That’s a great idea, let me go get the laptop and I can show you!” Charlie nodded, “Cool.” 

Ellie stood up, running down the hall only to emerge a few moments later with her bag. She sat down and started up the laptop. Fritz looked across the table, “whoa are we leaving already?” Ellie laughed, “Not yet, I’m showing Charlie how to write teleportation code so you guys can still see each other.” Fritz nodded and Sans turned his head, “wait charlie can’t you teleport anywhere anyways?” 

Charlie laughed, “I mean technically I can but this uses less energy and is more reliable.” Sans shook his head, “mind if I tune in? Probably won’t remember anything but eh.” Ellie laughed, “of course! Vanny you already understand how to do it right?” Vanny looked up from her plate, “huh? Oh! Uh yeah, yeah I do!” Ellie gave her a thumbs up and turned back to the laptop. 

The three of them spent around the next 2 hours going through how to use the code that Ellie had gotten access to the first time they appeared in her basement the months prior. She’d be lying if she said she understood how to use it and how it worked entirely, but she knew how to copy and paste it changing the variables and locations to make it work properly so it worked out. 

Charlie sat back in her chair, “we really are leaving then huh.” Everyone looked up at Charlie. Sans smiled, “yeah. guess so.” Daria laughed, “I mean, with our luck William will be out in a few months and we’ll be back together again...” Everyone smiled. 

Ellie sighed, “when do you want to go then.” Charlie looked up at the other missing children. Gabriel looked up at her, “now I guess.” Charlie nodded, looking over at Ellie who nodded in response. 

She opened the file of code for FNaF as she changed the few words for teleporting. Charlie looked over at Daria, Jim, and Silver, “thank you so much, for everything. We couldn’t have done any of this without you guys.” Daria smiled, “Until next time!” Charlie smiled, nodding at Ellie. “Bye-” She said, as they slowly glitched out, leaving the three pirates alone on the ship. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

They hit the floor with a lot more force than intended, nothing they didn’t expect. They stood up, looking around. Elizabeth sighed, “breaker room.” Cody laughed, “aahhhh I hate this place.” 

“Elizabeth? Cody?” Everyone turned around to see Ballora and Funtime Foxy standing in the doorway to the breaker room. The two smiled, “Hey!!” Elizabeth ran to Ballora, giving her a hug. She grabbed Vanny’s arm, “this is Vanny, she’s uh good now. She’s going to be staying in our world.” Ballora looked at the girl, “uh I-I’m really sorry about...everything” Vanny tried to sound as sorry as she was. Ballora looked down, “It’s ok. I’m glad you got rid of that horrible person from your life.” Vanny laughed, “oh yeah, me too!” Elizabeth turned around. 

“Thank you guys, it was great to get to leave finally.” Cody and Vanny nodded, walking over next to the other funtimes, “yeah, thank you! It was nice to meet you!” Charlie smiled, “thank you guys, you’re all amazing.” They smiled. 

Ellie opened the laptop, “FNaF one?” Charlie smiled, “yea.” Ellie nodded, waving goodbye as she hit enter. Sister location turning into nothing but black in front of them. 

They hit the ground once more. Ellie pushed herself off the floor, she could only see Sans. “where are they?” he asked. Ellie shrugged, looking around. “maybe Charlie changed them back.” Sans nodded as he opened the office door and looked down the hall. Sitting on the stage were the three animatronics, eyes lit up and looking around in the dark. Sans frowned as they saw Foxy walked in from down the hall and Puppet floated across the opening of the hall, coming out from a storage closet. 

Ellie and Sans jumped as a clock in the office started beeping, they turned to read it, 6 am. Sans looked back out the door. “what now?” Ellie sighed, “night shift ended, someone else should be coming to open the restraunt now I think. At least that’s what the game implies.” Sans walked back over to the door, stepping out of it into plain sight. The animatronics all looked up to where he was standing. Ellie peeked her head out the door frame. 

Sans watched as the Puppet melted away into a ghost. Charlie stared back at him, smiling. Sans frowned, looking around until he made a decision and raised his hand, opening his mouth to speak, just as a back door to the building could be heard opening and a light in the employees only room being turned on. Charlie looked up at the light from under the door, immediately taking her robot form and floating away to the closet, looking up at Sans once more before closing the door. Sans rested his arm down at his side as his shoulders dropped, breathing out as he clenched his teeth together. 

Ellie looked over at the animatronics on stage as they too looked up at them before their plastic eyes dimmed out and they rested in an idle position. She reached over and grabbed Sans’ arm, “sans we need to go.” Sans shook his head and followed Ellie to her laptop. She clicked enter, glitching them away once more, they were sitting in the cold snow of Snowdin. 

Sans jumped up, Ellie following. They both looked around for a second before frantic screaming could be heard from a distance. Ellie laughed as Papyrus ran towards the two, “SANSSSSS!” Sans walked forward, hugging his brother. “heh heya” Papyrus set him down, “ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” he inquired. Sans rolled his eyes, “yeah, im fine pap really.” Papyrus raised an eyebrow before forgetting the question and hugging him again. 

Ellie smiled, “I uh, I’d better go.” Sans looked up, “oh, yeah heh.” Ellie opened her laptop again, “thank you sans, you helped a lot.” Sans smiled, “anytime, see ya next time that loser decides he can take us again heh.” Ellie laughed, “for sure” She hit the enter button as she glitched out of the snow, landing in the somewhat warmer temperature of her backyard, her cat looking over from her food. 

She put the laptop on the ground next to her as she crossed her legs in the leaves, laughing as her cat came walking up to her and hopped in her lap. She patted the usually sassy cat’s head and looked up at the tree in front of her. Sighing, she smiled. It had been a good week.


End file.
